MEM Tea Imports

I couldn’t taste any interesting notes in this one, though MEM Tea says it’s vanilla, buckwheat, and dried apricot. This one makes no impression whatsoever.

Oh well!

It is interesting that I’ve started to like smoke as a flavor, but Friday Tea’s Writer’s Fuel helped me discover how good smoked tea can be.

This one smells completely overwhelming in the tin and I was sure I wouldn’t like it; I was wrong. Once brewed and with a bit of milk (I drink my tea with milk) it becomes a very pleasant smoky flavor without being completely overkill. I already have Writer’s Fuel in my cabinet, and nobody else in the house is a big smoke fan, so this one is going into the backup list for “if I can’t get my favorite, this is an excellent alternate” list.

I got some tea from MEM Tea and didn’t write down what it was. So I had to get more. (Oh darn. ;-)

Perfectly acceptable Yunnan, but not enough punch for my usual taste profile. Glad I got the sample, don’t feel the need to buy more. I’m sure folks who are more in the market for lighter Yunnans will enjoy this one.

This is a tasty tea that I quite enjoyed. It’s similar to a British breakfast, but it’s more robust in flavor. I was told for years that Russian Caravan was actually a very smoky tea, but this one’s smoke did not punch me in the nose; it was just a nice subtle accent. I would happily drink this again, but I don’t think I need to keep it in my cabinet all the time (though if I run out of ordinary Assam, it absolutely would be a good substitute).

This is the best rooibos. All other rooibos I’ve tried has finer and much brighter leaves. These leaves (more like pine needles) are full and dark.

This is a Chinese Black tea, and it has a bold, standoffish, almost noble or regal taste. The notes on MEM Tea’s site say that it tastes of burnt caramel or burnt sugar, and that is extremely accurate to me. There’s also this sort of mushroom-y earthiness that gives the brew a very full body, but a very dry finish on the pallet. This is one of those teas where I definitely wouldn’t go more than the recommended brew time of 4-5 minutes, since I would imagine the tannic and bitter notes becoming much more unpleasant. Still, I like how bold the flavor is, and how distinct it is from a lot of other black teas.

This tea seems to be quite caffeine-heavy too, which I found out by accident when I drank a cup of it at 6 PM. I wasn’t able to sleep until 3 AM that night. Unless you’ve got a great tolerance for the stuff, this is a morning-only tea. If you’re looking for a pure, unblended black tea where a sip feels like a duke’s glove-slap to your face, you can’t go wrong here.

Rooibos tea is something that I haven’t tried a lot of, though the stuff I have had has been quite enjoyable. This is a strongly vanilla-flavored tea, though it still has a lot of the woodiness and just a pinch of smoke that I’ve come to expect. The body of this tea is full, round, and smooth. Plus, since it doesn’t have any caffeine, it’s well suited for drinking at night or in the afternoon. I wouldn’t recommend steeping for more than 5 minutes, not because of any astringency or bitterness, but because otherwise the vanilla really takes over the drink and makes the taste a lot simpler and sweeter.

I do enjoy this plain, but drinking this with just a hint of milk or cream makes an extremely cozy beverage, perfect for cold winter afternoons.

For a white tea, the leaves look a lot more oxidized than most other white teas. I measured out 3 tsp, but this tea is extremely fluffy. If you have an accurate small-weights scale, I would recommend weighing the tea out in grams.

That being said, this particular brew has a subtle, sweet, and mild taste. It’s not my favorite white tea, but it is just generally nice. There is a slight grassy and vegetal note, as in most white teas, but it’s not unpleasant. At the same time, there’s no minerality or unpleasant metallic taste to my palate. Despite the lightness of the flavor, there’s still a good body, and not much of a lingering finish, which makes it generally pleasant to drink. I’d say this would make a good tea to drink in the springtime; warm but still refreshing.

This tea is… fine. Just fine. It has a nice aroma thanks to the blend of ingredients, and the proportions make for a smooth, round drink with just a hint of herbaceous spice. I find that the taste is weakly medicinal on this brewing, but still tea-centered and quite drinkable. If you like herbaceous teas within the licorice and anise palate, you’ll probably find this one to be more enjoyable than I did. Supposedly there’s orange peel in this blend, but I don’t taste that at all. Perhaps with a longer steep time or with hotter water, more of those notes would come forwards, but right now I’m mostly just stuck in the lavender and herbs.

Note; I am heavily biased in favor of this tea, since it introduced me to loose-leaf and specialty teas a few years ago.

That being said, this is not the strongest or most bergamot-forward Earl Grey that you’ll find out there. I personally find this to be an extremely well-balanced version of this classic blend, not overpoweringly strong, but with still enough body and lingering finish to be well worth the taste. This is about the strongest Earl Grey I enjoy drinking straight without milk or sugar, but it’s also around here where those additions start to shine.

This tea also makes for a decent cold brew during the summer – the more citrus-y and lemongrass flavors end up a bit tempered through the extended brewing time, giving it a sweeter, even rounder taste. However, I do like the sharpness and slightly angular flavor of the warm brew. As with all tea, experimentation can help you find a good comfort zone.

Initial steep 10s; raised to 15s subsequently as 10s produced a weak steep. Tea is slightly astringent and vegetal. I do like this tea. It goes well with oatmeal for breakfast.

I don’t drink many black teas these days, but this one is quite nice. Rich, golden/amber color to the liquor and the tea itself has beautiful black and golden hues. I brewed this one in a bottom-draining tea steeper, for 4 minutes with water just boiling.

Sweet, lightly malted, aroma which carries through into the cup. I can kinda sense the sweet potato that they mention, but it’s very light. Great texture and balance.

The first time I tasted this tea was at a nearby restaurant, sitting across from the man I love. Didn’t have a chance to get my nose into the dry leaves until later, when I bought a couple of sentimental ounces. The dry leaves have a delicate grassy musk that is surprisingly full, and brings a pleasant fruity zing — like seeing a dragonfly through meadow grass.

The tea itself is light and slightly sweet. It has a nice dull amber color, like spent leaves, and reminds me of guava juice in its subtle combination of sweetness, smoothness, and very light tartness. Overall nice to drink for a variety of situations, though I would not call it a relaxing tea.

I tried this blend in the shop and have been thinking about it since. The saffron is what really makes this tea in my mind. The sweet scent of the saffron and cardamom reminds me of Scandinavian sweet breads my grandmother used to make. This is a great tea that isn’t a traditional chai but still has lots of fragrant spices. I also like the name, Silk Road Spice, making me think of this tea going on some fantastical cross-country travel in ancient times. I only tried a cup of this blend, but clearly I need to go back to the shop and pick up a tin of loose leaf to take home with me.

Medium bodied tea with a strong bergamot aroma. When brewed it still has a strong bergamot flavor, without tasting fake or overpowering. Takes milk like a dream. My gold standard for Earl Grey.

First taste bears an uncanny resemblance to those little chocolate-mint candies you steal on your way out of restaurants. On second taste: a nice mix of chocolate and vanilla, with a mildly spicy rooibos base. Mint is a bit too strong for me.

Woah, this is great tea. Rich, sweet, floral, drying but not astringent, slightly sour on the tail end, just, phenomenol. Orchids, grapes, Neroli, even notes of Tuberose. A tea that makes you sad to finish the cup because you just want more.

Wonderful toasted smells come off the tea even when dry. Toasted rice, spent grains from brewing, along with a background of subtle higher notes on the nose (ylang, narcissus, floral but not sweet if that makes sense.) Brews a wonderful first cup, roughly 185f for 30-45s, although I’ve also grandpa’d it and that works fine too. Toasty, flavorful, plenty of mouthfeel. Highly drinkable. 2nd and 3rd pours stay that way, rich, roasted flavors coming off but not overwhelming, plenty of background high notes to let you know this is Oolong. By the 4th and 5th pours though, it turns a bit ‘brothy’ in a way that I actually quite enjoy. Almost a vegetable broth flavor, but for some odd reason gives me a headache. Odd. I only usually get that from oversteeped tea, not from late sesh pours. So I stop this one at pour #4 and call it a day.

Not sure about the roast profile, has a good charcoal smell to it but it could be electronic roaster as far as I know. Not too strong, but definitely the highlight of the tea.

I’m new to tea in general and this is my first Ceylon, so I don’t have anything to compare it to but considering what I’ve read about single estate Ceylon, this seems like a well balanced, fruity but not cloying, sweet but in a rich tasting way tea. beautiful nose of stone fruit, spent grain, muscatel flavors right off the bat. Slightly astringent but not overly drying. Coating in the best possible way. Smooth flavors, no real off notes. Classic EB Ceylon Aroma but not stereotypicaly fruity. Richer, deeper flavor, more nuanced than any EB you’ll encounter. Fair amount of twig is evident once re-hydrated. Brews a gorgeous, clear amber red liquor. A beautiful tasting tea

Nice, full leaves with minimal breakage; signs of decent storage and transport for a longer leaf pu erh. Liquor smells and tastes of gourds, wet wood, limes, with a back end of floral sweetness way at the rear of the palette. A thin bodied tea but with plenty of character, young but promising, smooth with a minimal but pleasant dryness. Flavors expand through middle rounds, neither waning nor growing, just changing. Late steepings get interesting, complex ‘green’ flavors.

Beautiful amber rolled Oolong. Steeps sweet and floral initially then fading to a subtle but pleasant roast flavor by the 4th pour and got a buttery flavor later on. Not overly Jade-y or tasting of toasted tea leaf, a complex aroma that lasted pour after pour. Brewed it almost all day, a beautiful, highly drinkable tea. Leaves were top 2-3, some stems intact, plenty of mixed oxidation.

My 1st aged white tea, so bare with me. Sweet smelling leaf even before brewing, beautiful darkened, condensed leaves with a smattering of silver tips. Beautiful smell while brewing, a dark sweetness like Oriental Beauty but without the oxidization. Tastes/smells of honey, medium caramel malt, but floral too, true to its roots as it were. Good for 2-4 infusions depending on the session, can get a bit astringent after 3rd. Great tea to unwind from the day or introduce someone to tea.