Camellia Sinensis

I picked up a sample of this tea in my last Camellia Sinensis order. This company has a few unusual black teas that I’ve been interested in trying, and this hongcha from Guizhou is one of them. I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The glossy, rolled dry leaves have aromas of honey, malt, bread, and florals. The first steep has notes of buckwheat honey, malt, bread, florals, faint tannins, zucchini, and unripe red berries. Honey, sour/unripe berries, tannins, and malt are even more prominent in the next steep. The tannins are fuzzy in the mouth and I get something reminiscent of rye bread. The next couple steeps have notes of bread, malt, honey, and florals, with faint berry and plummy fruitiness and some astringency. Steeps five and six are similarly full of honey, rye bread, and tannins, with some floral hints and something vegetal that I’ve called zucchini. By steep seven, the tea loses its fruitiness and focuses on honey, lots of malt, rye bread, tannins, and minerals. The end of the session has notes of malt, honey, minerals, and earth.

This is a nice breakfast-type tea that is a bit heavy on the tannins for me. I wish I could detect a little more fruit and that the malt was less overbearing. This is not a bad tea, just not the one for me.

pas mal bon. céréales, herbe fraîchement coupée, fruits légers… le tout avec une texture veloutée qui enveloppe entièrement la bouche. il faut faire bien attention de ne pas surinfuser ce thé, il peut rapidement développer un côté astringent désagréable. il peut être difficile d’équilibrer la richesse de sa saveur avec cette astringence dans le temps d’infusion.
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pretty good. toasted grain, fresh cut grass, light fruitiness… and a nice smooth mouthfeel. gotta be careful not to oversteep this one, it can quickly develop some unpleasant astringency. difficult to get a good balance between intensity of flavour and astringency when trying to find a good steep time.

One of the teas I picked up at Toronto Tea Festival. I probably wouldn’t have, but they were sampling it and I actually very much enjoyed how fresh tasting it was. Plus, I’ve been drinking more and more yerba mate blends in the mornings/early afternoons while working, so added another option to my rotation felt like a good thing. It’s a simple flavour, with a crisp and sweet peppermint note balanced by the gentle umami and grassiness of both the matcha and mate. Smooth, cooling, and just overall really enjoyable even if it’s not particularly unique or innovative feeling.

Picked up a sample of this last year and since I know Camellia Sinensis takes their teas very seriously, I figured this would be a really lovely tea. Plus I generally love teas from India. Extremely smooth, almost creamy taste with bready/grainy notes. Very thick, luxurious mouthfeel. Not astringent at all, not particularly bright (more mellow), not tannic at all. Enjoyed this very much. I may have to put it on the list of teas to get more of when I get some more sipdowns completed.

The “drag” feature doesn’t work on my phone, so…
I used 3 g leaf in a moderately-sized gaiwan, 200 F water, brewed for one minute.
This is the Spring 2024 wild silver needle from Verdant Tea.
I don’t have a ton of experience with white teas, so I had to play around with it a bit. Lower temp water just didn’t work. The flavor definitely came out with water 200F to boiling. I don’t think I’ve had artichokes before so what came to mind were a light combination of vegetal and slightly sweet, fruity notes – apricots, yes.

Had this in sachet format earlier in the week. It was fine. Basically just a incredibly classic feeling Earl Grey, which isn’t my personal favourite thing but there were no off notes or elements to point to negatively. It’s standard, but quality.

Lovely Pu Er from Camellia Sinensis! Earthy, woody and leathery. Easy to drink too.

I’ve had maybe three Dancongs from Camellia Sinensis and have liked only one (the 2010 Mi Lan Xiang). Nonetheless, I had to order 25 g of this both because of the name and because it’s made by the same producer as their Feng Huang Hong Cha, another tea I love. This note is for the 2023 harvest. I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of peach, lychee, honey, orchid, grain, and roast. The first steep really delivers on the soft, sweet peach I was hoping for. It also has notes of lychee, apricot, honey, orchid, butter, grain, roast, and tannins, which kind of make the peach feel fuzzy. There’s a peachy aftertaste that reminds me of peach pits. The next steep has a little upfront roast but is mostly peach, orchid, other florals, honey, and lychee. Grain and roast become more prominent in steeps three and four, though the peach is holding strong and the florals are still evident. The aftertaste shifts to grilled peaches and honey. In the next four steeps, I get more charcoal, wood, cream, and florals, although the peach is going strong. The final steeps emphasize charcoal, roast, minerals, wood, tannins, and faint hints of peach.

This may not be the world’s most complex
Dancong, but the sweet, persistent peach makes me happy. It isn’t as heavily roasted as some other Dancongs, although this could be due to age. I’d highly recommend this tea for any peach lovers out there.

A blend that beckons with a discreet charm. Its spicy profile, dominated by nettle, is interwoven with a delicate floral note courtesy of calendula, knapweed, fireweed and oregano flower. The leaves themselves are a sight to behold – large and elegant, as is the hallmark of Camellia Sinensis herbal teas. These bigger leaves demand a rather tactile approach, as a spoon would not allow a balanced selection of ingredients.

The infusion offers a mild, soothing taste. Beyond its flavour, this tea’s virtues lie in its utility—relieving headaches and aiding digestion. A quiet yet dependable ally in one’s collection albeit its steep price, perfect for moments of restorative calm.

I drank this yesterday while I was working and to be perfectly honest it barely made an impression at all, positively or negatively. I remember the thickness of the liquor and notes of both black pepper and cardamom but generally speaking it was sort of this heavier and more dense spice profile that totally just slipped right into the backdrop of my day. It was warmth, and caffeine but, well, not really flavour…

I guess I will need to drink it again and try and focus better!

A new limited edition blend from this past winter.

I was torn whether I wanted to try this one since it’s got a heavy amount of chamomile in it, but curiosity won out and I decided to grab a bag anyway. Well, definitely really strong notes of chamomile but with a slight fruity edge to it. I drank it when I was still VERY out of it following my dental surgery (still numbed up and everything) so I don’t recall much else about the cup. It was so-so but a nice, warm drink to sip on before crashing out and having a nap…

This herbal tea bears witness to the rigorous selection of leaves by Camellia Sinensis. The leaves themselves are of the size and quality typical of this tea house, which is better hand-picked, rather than scooped out with a spoon.

The aroma is dominated by a vivacious lemongrass note, yet artfully interwoven with delicate florals, and a refreshing zest. Upon infusion, the brew unfolds with a delightful interplay of tartness and subtle floral undertones. The lemongrass remains a prominent protagonist, lending a vibrant acidity. However, the infusion threatens to veer towards an assertive boldness after seven minutes, while a mere minute earlier, it risks becoming disappointingly watery whilst maintaining an astringency.

This tisane being on the more expensive spectrum (80 CAD$ for 100g), I wonder if I could find something similar and as relaxing in another teahouse.

I don’t have much experience with tulsi or gotu kola and I was intrigued enough to buy a big bag of this tea for $6 or so. I might have been hoping that the flavour would be a less sweet version of Coca Cola. I steeped about 3 g of tea in 355 ml of 190F water for 4, 6, 8, and 10 minutes.

The dry aroma is of basil, cloves, herbs, and cola. The first steep is heavy on the clove, with basil, herbs, caramel, and what I presume is the gotu kola in the background. The flavour is sweet, earthy, and spicy. The next couple steeps are very similar, though the clove fades into the background and the basil becomes more prominent. By the end of the session, the tea is grassy, herbaceous, earthy, and sweet. I probably should have stopped at three steeps, as the last one is kind of watery.

So, does this taste like Coke? Sort of, though it’s too clove heavy to be convincing and is missing a citrus element. This tea is pleasant enough to enjoy on a snowy evening. At least it doesn’t have licorice, hibiscus, or chamomile, which are ubiquitous in most herbal teas.

gong fu!
dry buds are exceptionally pale and have a pleasant fresh hay smell. i brewed this tea at 80°C instead of the recommended 75°C, as i feel this helps to bring out its sheng puer-like qualities without completely destroying its delicate flavours. it also has a nice astringency that i feel is quite common with vietnamese and yunnanese teas. delicate peach, floral and honey flavours take the stage in the first few steeps. in subsequent infusions, these are softened, and darker hay and autumn leaf notes are more present (along with that astringency i mentioned). overall a very enjoyable tea! lasted for 8 infusions.

grandpa style!
i love bug-bitten teas so much, and this is no exception. even when i brew it grandpa style, this guei fei has a wonderfully complex floral flavour that lingers for quite a while after sipping, with some nice berry notes somewhat similar to raspberry leaf tea. visually, this tea has long, narrow leaves and a dark amber colour. super comforting for autumn, but i drink this year-round.

i used to pick wintergreen in the woods when i was a kid! love infusing this stuff. it’s refreshing and relaxing, smells incredible and has a surprisingly complex flavour. it’s a bit menthol-y, very “fresh” – don’t really know how else to describe it. it’s quite similar to old school bubble gum (if i recall correctly, this is what they used to flavour it with). great to sip at the end of the day, and i love drinking some of this when i get migraines, i find it helps a little.

This is a complex and lovely tea. It tastes like a forest, but not just fir, all the things that could be found in a boreal forest. There’s a natural sweetness that is really amazing, a definite taste of blueberry and the fir is very much present. The other ingredients serve to add layers and depth to the cup overall. I might pick up a bag of this one in my next CS order. Thanks for sharing Cameron!

2024 sipdown no. 76

Thanks Cameron for sharing this one! There are a fair few ingredients here, and I can pick out thyme and (somewhat) mellowed mint but am unsure what the other ingredients taste like, so can’t comment there. The steeped scent is almost like lemonade, in a unique twist. This is a nice enough herbal.

Made a Western mug of this earlier in the week and it was nice, though just a smidge different than I remembered. I had this recollection of it being quite herbaceous in a bit of a funky marijuana-like way and though it was pretty herbal leaning I definitely wasn’t getting a cannabis sort of vibe this time around. Instead it was fresh, delicate and just a bit bright and citrusy with the bergamot note coming through actually fairly strongly. I enjoyed it. It was soft in a soothing kind of way.

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