Red Blossom Tea Company

Sipdown no. 9 of 2023 (no. 667 total).

This was also a lovely take it to work tea — a bit on the toasty side without going over into heavily toasted/smoky/burnt, with a soft mouth feel that is comforting. Perhaps because I was drinking it at the same time I was drinking an Iron Goddess, this one seemed a lot less green-like to me than my original note indicates. It seemed to lean more toward what I think of as Taiwan oolongs — and probably because of that it was my rainy day tea while the Iron Goddess was my sunny day one.

Yesterday I tried an aged Tung Ting from Red Blossom and the difference between the two is remarkable. In look and smell, the dried leaves are much greener than those of yesterday.

I steeped in the gaiwan after rinse at 195F starting at 15 seconds and increasing by 5.

The tea is a pale yellow color and has a floral note as well as a diary one. It’s much more like some other green oolongs I’ve had than the Tung Ting of yesterday.

The flavor is somewhere between that of a milk oolong and a green ali shan to my taste buds. Not as milky as the milk oolong, not as floral as the ali shan.

A very pleasant tea that I could sit with for a long time. It hadn’t faded by steep four, but I needed to move on to other things today.

I didn’t expect this to be as dark as it is. The leaves have a green oolong roll going, but they’re more of a brown color and they smell pretty roasty.

Gaiwan. 195F. Rinse. 15 seconds +5 each time for subsequent steeps.

The liquor is an amber color and the tea smells mildy roasty. Interestingly, the wet leaves gave off a whiff of something very honeydew like.

The tea tastes very mild. It’s not a strong flavor, but it does have something interesting about it. There is a cocoa note of sorts, mocha maybe. But it’s a suggestion more than a flavor and it’s mixed with something fruity. The cocoa note is quite pronounced in the cup after the tea is gone.

I’m not sure I’ve had a candied plum, but if the fruity flavor I’m tasting is what they taste like, they’re delicious! This is a really special tea. It has a lot of complexity to it, just when I think I have a flavor pinned down it morphs into something else. I see that some other folks got dates — not really getting that but I’m on the look out for it. It is, though, a really wonderful combination of confectionery chocolate family flavors and fruity flavors.

What a lovely way to start the day!

Somewhat delicate for a black tea. Very easy to oversteep this tea or use too hot of water, both of which hide the flavor complexity. Would recommend stepping down the temperature to the 190-195 range to better bring out the complexity.

Either 2017 or 2018 Spring Harvest; not totally sure.

Drank this one Grandpa style yesterday all throughout my lunch break and then for a few hours afterwards as I did some data entry type stuff…

This was amazing! Incredibly fresh tasting, with a beautiful body to the flavour and very creamy, silky mouthfeel. The predominant flavour was this sort of fresh/fragrant mix of florals that evoked this sort of “Spring time flowers in bloom” imagery for me; osmanthus/magnolia/lilac/etc. Also some creaminess in terms of flavour as well and then a tinge of sweet nutty notes (almond/marzipan-ish) in the finish. Just very rich, in a Spring-y kind of way.

Gorgeous leaf too! Giant, full leaves in a rich emerald colour. Kind of in love with this one, not gonna lie!

The last white tea in my cupboard now has been tasted and written about!

Whew. Tomorrow I should complete the oolong samples. After that, I’m not sure what will be next to finish. I think I may have more pu erh samples than pu erhs in the cupboard, so perhaps it will be cupboard pu erhs next.

In any case, this is an excellent note to end on. I love the shape of the little “eyes” and they smell positively juicy with jasmine in the packet.

I steeped a bit hotter and longer than usual after reading some of the notes here. That gave me a golden yellow, clear tea, that smells wonderfully of jasmine.

While I’m not getting the buttercream frosting reference at all (the tea isn’t particularly sweet other than the standard jasmine floral sweetness) and the mouthfeel isn’t creamier than usual, it’s a really delicious jasmine that meets all of my “this is good jasmine” criteria. Because it’s a white tea, I don’t really taste any tea — just the jasmine.

But that’s not a bad thing.

I forgot I even had this. It was in a sealed, never opened packet.

When I first started drinking green tea I didn’t get dragonwell. But now I love it. And despite its age, this one smells wonderful in the packet. A little juicy-vegetal, a little sweet grass/hay, a little nutty. After steeping, its a pale, clear golden yellow and smells like sweet grass.

It’s slightly sweet, slightly nutty, and a little grassy in flavor. I think I’d also taste the asparagus everyone else tastes if not for the fact I just ate some asparagus for lunch.

It’s hitting the spot after today’s special Pokemon event. Alas, I didn’t get a shiny Gengar. :-(

Sipdown no. 3 of 2022 (no. 653 total).

I’ve recently had a number of green cold teas at various coffee places — mostly local to places I’ve been traveling, so I thought I’d do one at home and also go for a sipdown.

Alas, my home version didn’t live up to expectations. What hadn’t been a particularly vegetal green tea when hot became one when cold. It was a little like drinking cooked vegetable run off, though more pleasant.

Anyone watch Emily in Paris? It didn’t taste like leek soup, but made me think of it.

The last little bit is getting combined with an Andao white tea for another cold brew experiment — but my tin is empty so I’m calling it a sipdown.

Continuing with the project to get through all the teas in my cupboard and write a note about them, this is today’s green. After yesterday’s disappointment with frothless matcha, I am thinking I will skip the matcha candidate today and go directly to oolongs after this.

The dry leaves in the packet smell wonderfully sweet, like fresh mown hay. Which makes me think of Elton John’s Skyline Pigeon for the first time in years.

The steeped tea is, remarkably, colorless. The only thing that indicates it isn’t just water is some suspended solids in the tea. The aroma, too, is very faint. A tinge of sweetness and butter.

The flavor is subtle, but lovely. A freshly grassy, slightly nutty, slightly buttery flavor. I would like to taste this one on a rested palate, as I believe there is more to it that I am missing having had a couple of heavily flavored teas already this morning.

Sipdown no. 110 of 2018 (no. 466 total). A sample.

The sample packet contained just enough to both try this and sip it down. Made in the gaiwan at 195F.

I accidentally knocked the gaiwan over and a lot of the leaves spilled out right after the rinse. I got discombobulated and started the steeps at 30 sec. instead of my usual 15.

I’m deeply disappointed to note that Red Blossom no longer has this on their web site because this was awesome!

The aroma of the steeped tea is almost equal parts delicate floral and roasted, sweet depth. The flavor is reminiscent of caramelized sugar and raw, dark honey. The tea is light amber in color and clear.

The second steep, a bit longer (45 sec) , highlighted the roastiness. The tea has a soft mouthfeel and leaves a bit of freshness in the mouth as well. Someone else mentioned pine, and I think it is more that than menthol or camphor — the freshness is like what comes out of a broken pine needle.

Steep 3 (1 minute) is similar to steep 2, and at this point I’ve decided to just savor and enjoy through another steep or two rather than interrupt the enjoyment to take notes.

This tea has a lot of character, and a smoothness and lingering sweetness that makes it extremely easy to drink.

I want more, and alas, it appears that isn’t in the cards.

Sipdown no. 105 of 2018 (no. 461 total).

As a cold tea, it’s not just water and indeed is rather tasty. This is a pattern for me. Cold brew probably brings out the flavor of white tea in a way that hot water is supposed to but doesn’t for me. Which makes me wonder whether I should just heat up the cold brew to understand how white tea is really supposed to taste?

Steeped as an herbal, boiling for 6 minutes, I get more color (very pale yellow), more aroma, and more flavor.

Whether it’s what I’m supposed to taste or not, I think I’ve settled on an understanding of what silver needles tastes like to me. With shorter cooler steeps, it’s barely flavored sweet water. With longer, hotter steeps, it’s sweet hay with a touch of chestnut.

That’s what I’m getting here. It’s very mild, and while I prefer stronger flavors, I could see keeping the best of what I come across in the cupboard for a change of pace. However, I don’t need a thousand different silver needles. Or even five. Maybe one or two at the most. Probably one. I feel the same way about white peony.

When you add in flavored teas, I can justify a few more as I really enjoy jasmine silver needle and some of the melon flavored white teas.

I don’t think this is the silver needle that will make that list. Right now, unfortunately, that seems like it’s the Andao — and the company no longer exists. Perhaps there’s a clue in the “Yunnan” part of the Andao’s name though. When I’m sufficiently through my stash that I can justify ordering again, I am going to look for another Yunnan silver needle and see how that one works for me.

Anyway, bumping the rating on this one because at a hotter temp, it’s got some flavor that is gentler than the Rishi, and that puts it into the good category as these things go. There’s an odd marine note that I don’t love, or I’d rate it higher for smoothness.

The sweet alpine water I get. But the rest… I’m so frustrated I could cry. This tea has excellent, excellent reviews here and I barely taste anything!

I thought I was going to make a breakthrough with this one because the dry leaves have a very intense woody/nutty smell. But after steeping all of that goes away. The tea’s aroma is so subtle I have to strain to get anything out of it. It’s clearly not just hot water, but floral? No, I don’t smell flowers at all. Maybe a slight sweetness, toward that spun sugar I sometimes taste in white teas, but not fresh cut roses or apricot blossoms.

The tea is almost the color of unsteeped water, so I am wondering whether I should go hotter on this — maybe do the herbal steep method and see if I can get more. There is a slightly nutty aftertaste if I squint really hard, but very little to the rest of the sip other than a subtle spun sugar note.

It’s not terrible, but it just tastes to me mostly like particularly fresh and clean water. But if I wanted that I could drink Fiji, no?

Another new one from Red Blossom. New for me, anyway.

If you are looking for a bright, simple, subtle Oolong, this one is for you. Subtle hints of grass and Earth, just a touch nutty. This is a great for those not so cold and dreary Winter or early Spring days. More towards green tea than black, it tastes and finishes as crisp and clear as it looks.

I love a good Oolong. This one is on the subtle side, with floral notes and a creamy feel. It’s light and smooth, and very drinkable. Great on a not-so-cold but wet and rainy day. Like… Today!

Super bright and floral this year. Hints of grass and earth, on the scale of between green and black, this is closer to a green tea, with all the good elements of green and oolong tea. Amazing.

An amazing tea; not as sweet as the other Formosa Red from this company, but with a very sweet and pleasant aroma, and a light touch of sweetness and honey, a bit of grassy taste as well, to the tea’s flavor.

Another well balanced if a bit shallow tea from Red Blossom Tea, but this one is much more to my taste and has a bit more to offer than the last.

I followed their brewing instructions of light leaf and a starting steep of 1min 20sec, adding 30 seconds each round up, to a final (8th) brew at 4min 50sec.

The aroma of the leaves after a rinse is that of burnt sugar, raspberry, and tobacco. The tea has a light, smooth body throughout the session. The flavor begins with notes of toffee and a melange of fruit. There’s a refreshing, crisp minerality like drinking water straight out of a spring that acts as the base thoughout my tasting.

By the third steeping the roast seems to have mostly washed away and took the toffee flavor with it, leaving the mineral, fruit, and making room for some snap pea flavor.

On the fifth steeping some cooling spice starts to appear, like sweet cinnamon and mint. The session finishes with a cherry scent and a white grape flavor.

This was a pleasant, enjoyable, and refreshing cup but not something I could see myself restocking (especially at the price they’re charging). While I wish there were more depth to the teas of theirs I own, I commend how well balanced their roasts are — just enough to bring some more character out of the tea but not so much that it has a biting smoke flavor or overwhelms the natural character of the tea.

I have enough of this left that down the road I’ll probably play around with a higher leaf/quicker infusion session to see if there’s anything more to find.

Another tea I’ve had sitting in the back of my cabinet. Maybe since 2014 or 2015.

There’s not a lot I can say about this tea. The dry leaf aroma is sweet with notes of caramel and toffee and it pretty much sets your expectations right where they should be. Once you rinse the leaves there’s an aroma of smoke that joins the caramel and toffee.

Flavor is right there with the aroma. There’s a pleasantly unaggressive smokiness. The sweet notes of caramel, toffee, and a hint of pear are strong but not cloying. There’s a bitterness that hints at chocolate or a dark roast coffee. The tea has a medium body with a creamy mouthfeel.

And that’s it. From the start of the session to the end. If those flavors are what you’re looking for this tea has some of the best balanced examples of them I’ve tasted, but there’s just not enough here for me to get excited about this tea.

Coldbrew, and a sipdown

This is a really nice baozhong oolong that has some great vegetal, orchid, and well-balanced tannin vs sweet.

I think this sample is from JK7Ray

1.5 tsp leaf, 500 mL warm water (~75-80 deg. C)

The whole leaves are really beautiful and fully intact. The brew is initially floral and buttery. Later, it becomes more complex and floral; it is also quite sweet. Notes of orchid and geranium, lightly vegetal, but with no bitterness or astringency at all. I accidentally forgot about my cup and the teabag has been in for an hour and it still is not bitter. It also makes a very pleasant cup of cold tea. Honestly, I’m very impressed with the flavours in this because they are flavourful but balanced. I highly recommend this to oolong and floral/green oolong lovers. I’ll be purchasing a bunch of this for sure…after I finish my sipdown challenge though.