Green Terrace Teas

Method: 1 tbsp, 8 oz, 190 degrees, 3 minutes, French Press

Dry Leaf Aroma: This smells like sweetened malt, with a very pleasant hint of whiskey.

Flavor: This is a very good tea. I may try a bit more leaf next time, because I like a stronger flavor, but I was quite happy with this one. It has a very pronounced sweetness, with no bitterness. Astringency is very light. I often find that many teas are either not malty, or very strongly malty. This tea tasted malty to me, but it was a very quiet flavor that blended nicely with the natural sweetness of the tea. I picked up on some floral notes, but I couldn’t specify which ones. There was a little fruitiness on the end of the sip also. This tea has something for everyone!

When I was pouring the tea, I detected a bit of fruity aroma. In the cup, the aroma is a complex mixture of cooked stone fruit and an underlying leafiness. The taste is simiar to the nose, but very sweet. OMG: the finish is just amazing. Big and fruity and goes on forever. Sorry; I just had to interrupt. This is a great finish.

One of my favorite things about a really good tea is how it builds up as you drink it. When the finish from the last sip is still there when I inhale the aroma, and the aroma and the finish combine with the taste in my mouth to just build the experience. This tea gives me the full experience.

This is the kind of tea you need to just spend time with. Don’t watch TV. Don’t work. Don’t read a book. I shouldn’t even be writing a review. Just savor the tea. It is worth it.

Thanks to Green Terrace Tea for the review sample.

I got my free samples this week and why not start sampling tonight!

Using the full sample in a 6oz gaiwan.

Well…hello beautiful.

Talk about a full cup of yum.

This is everything I like about a high mountain oolong…and more.

The elements I’m really digging are usually the floral, spicy and minty aspects, and I get them all here. Nice florals that might be a little more perfumed then what I’m used to, but really, I can’t name the flowers cause it’s none of the ones I’m used to find in greener oolongs, which are orchids and lilacs.

The usual spiciness which translates into nutmeg for me is also there, and so is that fresh mouthfeel I get at the end of the sip.

What’s really different about this oolong is its fruitiness. It so full of fruits, it almost tastes tropical to me. The fact that it’s also creamy makes me think of Pina Colada. I also get grapes and apple notes.

There’s a certain bite to it also, a briskness. I wouldn’t say it’s bitter, but it’s a tad astringent. Nothing offensive though, makes the flavours pop even more.

I have many more steeps to come, and might finish it with a cold brew.

I am very impressed with this first sample.

Thank you so much Green Terrace Teas for this opportunity.

This one smelled SWEET dry and for the first steep, was just as sweet. It was very fruity but smooth. I steeped it once more, and it was a lot more floral, which was interesting. The strength was about the same each steep, and I imagine if I had enough hours in the day I could get a few more out of this no problem. I definitely recommend it.

First of all, GTT has great customer service. There was a mix up with brewing instructions so my tea was oversteeped the first time, and GTT responded with an apology and offer to send a new sample. Lovely. They clarified the steeping parameters and resent the Honey Black, along with 2 more samples. Very helpful company. I would definitely purchase from them.

Method: I made this one in my little banko houhin which is dedicated to black teas. 5 grams, 5 oz, 200 degrees, 20 seconds and 40 seconds

Aroma: Malty sweetness

Flavor: SO. MUCH. BETTER! The daunting bitterness is gone. There’s a lovely malt flavor and a hint of sweetness. There’s also a very mild bitterness on the end of the sip and a teensy bit of astringency in the aftertaste, but nothing unpleasant at all. This tea is very smooth and has a nice feel in the mouth. Not too thin, not too heavy.

I hadn’t really planned on making this, but then I saw boychik’s note and figured I’d give this a go. I’m glad I did! This story has a happy ending and now I’ll have a little caffeine to help me through an evening of babysitting my nephew, who is almost 3, and has enough energy to power a small country!

Thanks to GTT for the second sample and for being so gracious!

Method: 1 tbsp, 8 oz, 200 degrees, 3 minutes, Forlife brew in mug strainer

Dry Leaf Aroma: malty and sweet

Flavor: Oh my. Something seems amiss because this is very bitter! This was the sample I was most looking forward to, but I had to add sugar to drink it. I know the temp was exact, and I also have a separate tea timer. I tried this at 2 min, 30 sec and it already had a tinge of bitterness, so I stopped it at 3 min, instead of the 4 I had originally intended. It’s good with sugar, but it lost the maltiness from the dry leaf aroma.

I appreciate the sample, but this one just wasn’t for me.

Update: it seems the brewing instructions on the website were more general, and not specific to this tea. GTT has offered to send me another sample, so I’ll try again. I’ve removed my numerical rating for now. :)

I’ve enjoyed a lot of Li Shan oolongs, so when Green Terrace Teas offered free samples for reviews, I jumped at the chance to try two black teas from Taiwan.

This is the kind of tea I really enjoy. It is big and rich with a complex mixture of flavors.

Last night I enjoyed eight steeps of this tea and will probably have a few more today.

This is quite a fruity green oolong with nice floral tones which manages to be both soft and punchy at the same time. It is not a biting green oolong. Its floral tones while spicy and obviously present never present this sensation. However this absence seems to turn into a slight bitterness which is usually absent for me in Oolong’s of this type. It may be that I chose a slightly too long steep time, as the rinse had quite an intense flavour. The punchy tones are apparent in the great fruit tones which I really enjoyed!

The dry leaf smelled intensely of snap peas, melon rinds, and a grape hyacinth. they were composed of cool toned spruce to olive green shaded irregularly sized nuggets. Once brewed the tea had a light yellow green coloured broth.

I steeped this tea at around 85°C and so far I have done eight steeps after the rinse (35,30,35,45,55,70,85,120). The tea is still yielding a flavourful broth. The tea was creamy from the first steep and left a mild tingling at the roof and front of the mouth.

Similar tones have been found in both the scent and flavour. So far I have detected:

°Pineapple, melon ( at times even cantelope rind), mango, orange juice, and that bright tone from the white of orange rind. Pineapple has been the dominant fruit tone so far.
°Lilac and clover nectar, with lilac dominating the earlier steeping, and clover the second half. The floral notes contribute a pleasant spiciness to the tea.
°Cream.
°Mint
°A slightly woody tone
°Savoury tones including snap pea, artichoke and spinach.
°Honey

The dominant tones have been fruit and floral notes.

So far I have enjoyed this tea and look forward to further steeps today.

Oh, I forgot how good this tea is. It’s smooth and sweet, a little biscuity, and it has great plum and spice notes. There’s a floral (honeysuckle) note as the tea cools which blends nicely with the other flavors. I’m not sure if I tasted plum in this tea before – I’ll have to go check my notes – but my, oh, my is it showing up in force today. That’s a good thing. A good delicious thing.

Thank you Nicole for sending this tea my way! It’s a real treat!!!

Tea of the morning. I’m using the last of my sample, and I have to say I’m sorry to see this one go. It’s really delicious. I slightly over leafed my cup, but the results were still great. I’m thinking it would be difficult to mess up this tea. Today there’s a nice biscuit note along with the stone fruit and honey, and I’m still loving the hint of spice right at the end of the sip. It brings all of the flavors together for me into a tasty little treat.

Another tea that will make a return appearance in my cupboard at a future date. For now though… sipdown!

September Sipdowns: 9

Tea of the morning. This tea has such a great mix of flavors. There’s stone fruit, malt, bread, spice (my first thought is very light cinnamon, but now I’m thinking all spice), and honey. I steeped the leaves three times, and each cup was soooo good. I have one teaspoon of this beauty left, but it’s already on my wishlist and is soon to be in my cupboard in a much larger quantity.

This sample was sent to me by Green Terrace Teas for review. Thank you!

I am really liking this tea. There are light fruit flower notes, and notes of stone fruit. The fruit note is peachy, but there is something that reminds me of plum as well. Then there is the honey note. This is another very nice honey tea, but the floral and fruit notes make it so much more. It’s a truly beautiful tea. This is one of those teas that I will make when I have the time to really enjoy all that the tea has to offer. Cup after cup (I did four infusions) the layers of flavor were so good. Winner!

Time to make room in my cupboard. I need more of this tea.

I’m skipping the queue with this one, because I want to show the GTT team that I am actually gratefully writing and drinking the things they shared with me. Sort of like a proof that I’m keeping my end of the bargain, even if the other two samples will likely wind up in the posting queue and turn up in due course. I just didn’t want to have the first post wait that long. The oldest posts in the queue at the moment are from May, you see. (I haven’t been adding to it nearly every day though, so it’s not as long as one might fear.)

Shortly before I went on holiday, I received an email from Green Terrace Teas, inviting me to try a few samples from them and writing about them. This put me in a bit of a dilemma, because you may recall that I have this box on my desk of things I haven’t yet tried and the goal for 2014 is to empty it. Completely. So empty that you could turn it upside down and nothing would fall out. As a consequence I am strictly prohibited from adding to said box.

But if they’re offering to give me stuff which I didn’t ask for first… Then technically I’m not the one adding to the box. So that must be okay, right? I mean, I can’t be held responsible for other people’s actions, right? So I said yes please and chose three things. Well, actually I chose two things and dithered on the third to the point of saying ‘surprise me’. I chose the two black teas (of course) and also wanted to try an oolong, but I haven’t had much experience at all with these green type oolongs in recent years, so apart from a couple that I was already familiar with, I didn’t even know where to begin. Hence, ‘surprise me.’

Now, this particular tea is the one I’ve been looking forward to the most.

Both the steeped tea and the dry leaf have a strong note of something which is very hard for me to place. It’s sweet and malty, but I’m not sure I would say it was necessarily honey. Maybe a very concentrated honey note, but I’m leaning more towards honey with something else. It’s the something else I’m having trouble with. The malty note is quite strong though and it’s only enhanced further by the honey note. As it cools to a sippable temperature, the honey note develops further, gradually making it stronger than the malty note. At this point the something else is also developing a bit, and I’m starting to think berries. A fairly tart sort of berry, possibly dried. Black currants and/or blackberry are the first things that come to mind. Perhaps also a little bit of plum, but I’m uncertain about that one.

The tea itself is surprisingly strong. It’s not strong in the overleafed or oversteeped way, it’s just a naturally strong tea by it self. The first and foremost note that I notice is something sort of wood-y, like how a dark oolong can be quite wood-y in flavour. Not the dark sort of oaky wood that black tea can have but something a bit lighter and sharper. I have a specific type of wood in mind that it makes me think of, but unfortunately I don’t know what kind of tree that’s from… It’s a light wood with a sort of pinkish-golden colour and the wood grain is very well defined. Anyway, it tastes to me like wood that looks like that. (Bring on the synesthesia. Why can’t I have this phenomenon in a normal way?). As a result this whole tea kind of tastes like that pinkish-golden colour, complete with wood grain and everything.

Along with the weird wood note, I’m also getting a strong note of honey. It’s amazingly sweet this and the honey notes is very clear. A little spicy and hay-y too, which reminds me of Yunnan teas, especially the sort.

These naturally occurring notes (rather than flavourings) are always rather subjective, so I was uncertain about how much honey I would actually find in it, but I’m very attracted to things to do with honey. I’ve had supposedly peach-y teas before and not found even a whiff of stone fruits, so I tend to take that sort of thing with a grain of salt. This one, however, definitely delivers. There is a bit of astringency on the swallow, but the aftertaste is all honey.

If bees drank tea, they would drink this.

Buzzzzzzzz!

It’s the end of September, & later this evening I’ll update my tea document, so I’m working on teas I had planned to review this month, & also teas that are on the sip down list.
This is one of the latter, a sample shared by Green Terrace. I’m grateful to have savored it’s honey sweet pastry goodness. Thank you! :)

Again I’d like to thank Green Terrace for sharing samples of their teas.
I drank this earlier in the day, using the western steep parameters, & it is a classic Oriental Beauty, with notes of Honey, courtesy of the Leaf Hoppers. It’s a pleasing gentle cup, also with elements of floral, fruit, & wood, along with a lingering sweetness.
I have enough left to go with a gongfu session next time :)

Last of my GTT to try, and it’s been fun!

The leaf of this is so tightly rolled, which I love. I almost wish I did this in my glass french press instead of my yixing tea pot so that I could watch how much these expand. The first steep of this was roasty, but pretty weak. I think this is one of those teas that needs a rinse to wake it up.

The second steep was stronger, roasty, nutty and slightly fruity. I want to say apricot maybe?

The third steep, I started to notice that there;s a slight dryness in the after taste. Sort of thrown off because the description specifically mentions no astringency, gut there’s definitely some here. Much like the last cup, plus some toasted rice notes

This steep and the fifth were both more astringent, and tasted a lot like genmai.

If it weren’t for the dryness, I’d be a huge fan of this. As it stands, its still pretty good. There’s a nice comforting roasted flavor, supported by the nutty, and accented by the fruity. Definitely a relaxing tea, just not a fan of the slight dryness.

The smell is similar to the Li Shan, but not quite as syrupy strong. Notes of assam in teh smell, but there’s no real malt in the taste. Thick and mouth-coating, honey, barley. Definitely smooth. I can get where the ‘peach’ and ‘raisin’ flavours in the description come from, though I wouldn’t tag it that personally. Light fruit flavours, again comparing this to the Li Shan sample I got, which has a darker drop fruit taste (peach vs. plum, I guess). Honey when I breathe out, but floral in the forefront with each sip.

The honey reminds me of ceylon teas, but there’s no oak or astringency to round it out. The assam smell of the leaf didn’t carry over, which leaves me wondering if it’s an assam varietal used or not. The leaves are long (but not quite THAT long).

Today was NOT good. I started by spilling my AM oolong all over the counter. Then I had to make tea at work where the water temp isn’t high enough. Then I ran around like a crazy person all day because 2 girls are on vacay, so everyone keeps dumping their stuff on ME!

But I had a nice dinner with my Mom and my Aunt, and now I am settling in with a lovely summer thunderstorm and a cup of this tea! On to the review!

Method: 1.5 tsp, 8 oz, 200 degrees, 2 minutes, Forlife Brew-in-Mug strainer. And of course, the Dr. Who mug because the Doctor always makes you feel better!

Dry Leaf Aroma: Lightly floral and also fruity. What’s that? Dried apples? And this also has a lovely buttery aroma.

Flavor: Interesting. This one has a more subtle flavor than I expected, after going for 2 minutes. It’s a little fruity and has a very pronounced floral taste when slurped. Almost perfumey. I pick up some of the buttery notes, also. I thought this might be a little sweeter, but I haven’t found that to be the case. I’d like this to be a bit stronger, so I am going to try 4 min on the resteep.

It didn’t look like the leaves opened all the way on the first steep, but they definitely unfurled all the way on the second steep. The tea is darker and has a little astringency, but not anything unpleasant. The floral is still present, but not the apple or butter. I think I like the first steep better, though I do pick up a very nice raisin note on this steep! This is a good tea, but I think I can get a little more out of it. I am going to try it gong fu style next time.

Thanks to GTT for the sample!

I left the last sample from Green Terrace Teas to this afternoon when I could spend a little time with it. Leafhopper tea! I was very excited to try this oolong.

As with all the other samples this one smelled very fresh dry. I brewed at 195F , gave the leaves a quick rinse and brewed for 40 sec. This tea isn’t as buttery as some of the other light oolongs. It brews up an orange colour and there only a hint of toasty notes in it. A honey sweetness on the tongue. Floral aroma and floral notes. There was apple notes as well. With all this going on, you would think this would be my favourite oolong but it’s not. It is very good but I believe it’s the toasty notes that are not something I love. I did 3 infusions of this tea and it had good flavour on all 3. (40, 60, 60)

I am very thankful to Green Terrace Teas for providing this sample for me to try.

Thank you Green Terrace for the generous samples of your teas. I was very excited to try this one based on the description.

I steeped it for 2.5 minutes at 95C and found this tea to be absolutely delicious. It has juicy fruity notes, with honey on top. I can’t wait to re-steep it. Even as the liquor cools at the end of my cup, I have to say that it is still very good with no trace of bitterness.

I was surprised to see that it’s $39.60 for 100g of tea though! Maybe I need a more fully refined palette to appreciate the depths of this tea? OTOH, that’s pretty close to what I pay for Laoshan Black. :P And this was very good tea.

My friend Lisa picked this one out, & since I had already tried it western style, we put the rest of it into my 4 oz porcelain teapot & gave it the gongfu treatment.
I’m still not at full tasting mode, missing out on some of the subtleties that some of these teas have to offer, but I did pick up honey, a gentle cooked breakfast cereal, a touch of apricot, & a floral element as well.
A gentle soothing tea, very pleasant.
Sipdown! 361

Like many others here, I took advantage of Green Terrace Tea’s offer of 3 free samples, & I’m glad I did. My teas arrived on Saturday, & I’m enjoying this one now.
This is a lovely tea, a very gentle tea, that brings to mind a creamy bowl of oatmeal, with some peach or apricot jelly stirred in, & some honey drizzled on top. I’m thinking apricot, as there is a slightly tangy quality to it. All of the flavors linger nicely. This is not a bold wake up! kind of tea, but is more like a homey breakfast, very soothing & comforting.
Thanks very much for the sample, Green Terrace Tea! I’ll share the remainder of it with my dear Tea Sister, Sil.
Unless she got her own…

Today was a good mail day! Days when I get things in the mail are the best, especially when something I was not expecting till later in the week arrives significantly early, it was such a pleasant surprise! Not surprising it was tea, along with a new double walled glass travel tea tumbler thing. This will be very useful since my previous tea tumbler fell apart and I have not been able to have tea on the go. After I experiment with it I will have to give an official review of it. Hopefully it will be worth the money!

Presenting today’s tea: Medium Roast Dong Ding Oolong by Green Terrace Teas. From Nantou, Taiwan, this Oolong was given a longer oxidation period and a slow roasting, sounds like my kinda tea. What can I say, roasted teas rock my socks off, something about them are very comforting to me, if I am having a bad day or feel icky, I almost always reach for a roasted tea. The aroma of this particular roasted oolong is toasted and nutty, with notes of roasted nuts, sesame seeds, and fresh bread. There is also a tiny bit of fresh vegetation at the end. I find this amusing, like a little bit of the pre-roasted aroma hanging on.

Steeping this tea, the aroma of the now wet leaves is smoky and toasty! There are strong notes of coal and smoke, along with equally strong notes of sweet yeasty toast and roasted sesame seeds, it is nicely blended. The liquid, having been removed from its leafy companion, has the aroma of yeasty bread, sesame seeds, and honey.

The taste is exactly what one expects from a medium roasted Dong Ding Oolong, the taste starts out lightly toasted and honey sweet. This builds to a more toasted, actual toasted bread taste, which fades to a creamy, honey sweetness at the finish. The mouthfeel starts out smooth and fades to a slight dryness at the finish.

On the second steep, there is a much stronger toasted aroma, with notes of freshly toasted bread, sesame seeds, and a bit of popcorn. The mouthfeel takes its cues from the end of the previous steep and has a nice dryness that encompasses the entire sipping experience. The taste is intensely toasty with notes of freshly toasted bread, sesame seeds and a rich honey sweetness at the middle. Right around the finish and staying until the aftertaste there is a strong popcorn (specifically it reminds me of kettle corn because it is sweet) taste.

Third steeping time! The aroma is mostly roasted sesame seeds and a touch of popcorn, it has a tiny touch of floral of the finish. The taste has a bit of a smoky tone this time around, it no longer has a dry mouthfeel. The initial smokiness fades to popcorn and then finally a finish of sweet. I really liked this tea, not just because I have never met a roasted tea that I did not like, this one had a great comforting feeling. I found myself sipping it before sleep.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/07/green-terrace-teas-medium-roast-dong.html

This is pretty tasty – it smells and tastes very smooth and sweet, as the name would suggest. It gets a bit more floral for me in the third steep and beyond, and I got tired of resteeping after 5, so I can’t say how long this one would last. I have tried a few milk oolongs now and I enjoy them.