Shang Tea

Incredibly beautiful leaves, very long and elegant. It brews into a pretty golden liquor with notes of plum, apricots, and and sweet tea that tastes good both hot and cold.

It has a nice sweet caramel, fruit, and tea fragrance and the leaves are of a nice size. It’s not the long twisted leaves of Dawn, but still very nice. The liquor is a deep ruby color. It has a slight bitterness but no astringency. There is an additional taste that I cannot identify along with the tea taste. It is an acceptable tea but not stellar.

Ack! I’m out! I’ll need to arrange for a trip to their shop soon. Yum…

I am really beginning to like this tea a lot. What a turn around. From initially thinking it was like Orange Pledge to being something I crave. It’s not a sweet tea, it’s lightly bitter and I think that’s what I like about it. The same thing that draws me into drinking tonic water plain; its got a little bite to it.

The trick with this one is hotter water and SHORT steeps. And I need to get back to Shang Tea to buy more of this.

It’s an orange day today. Maybe I should follow this up with that Pu-erh Orange… anyway, this – as always – is tart and a wake-up call to my tastebuds. Mmmm.

TEA REDEMPTION!

Oh, so much better!

After my last review was so negative, I went back to the store and had the owner show me how to make this tea right. (And can I just say how awesome it is to be able to go and talk to the guy who owns the land where the tea is grown to talk to him about how to best brew it! HEE!) He showed me what I did wrong, and how to do it right.

Now, brewed properly, it’s not a sweet tea. It’s got bitter tones to it, but brewed right – they work.

No longer do I have visions of using it for cleaner; I’ve been actively craving this tea. And I know it’s got TONS of vitamin C, so for the cold I’ve got right now, it’s a very good thing.

Wow. I tried their Tangerine Blossom red tea earlier today and loved it. So I thought I’d try this Orange Blossom White this afternoon.

Not a fan. The leaf is goregous, but very sour and very bitter. I actually dumped out the first cup. And I’m barely making it through the second (I thougth a second steeping might be less… intense). The sweet orange of the last tea has been replaced by something I’d rather clean counters with. BLEA.

Ah.. this is such an amazing tea. Rich, caramel, citrus, almost nutty. It’s just amazingly good. I really recommend this one. It’s making my day much nicer.

I am thankful. I’m thankful for my friends (both on-line and off), I’m thankful for my husband, my health, my pets, and many other things.

I am also thankful that two pots of this tea can help ease the memory of the awful, awful meals my mother in law subjects us to each holiday season.

(I am not thankful for the fact she can’t cook.)

Wow. I’m loving this tea!

It’s very aromatic, and very flavorful. Have you ever tried orange flower water in anything? Did you like it? If so, you’ll LOVE this. Since it uses tangerine blossoms rather than orange blossoms, it’s a slightly sweeter taste, but it’s got that flavor from the blossoms that doesn’t delve into sour or bitter like using orange peel in tea can. When used too much, orange flower water can move towards perfumy, but while this tea does have an aromatic quality (and leaves the ghosts of tangerine blossoms in your mouth) it’s not too heavy; nor does it taste like you’re chugging your grandmother’s perfume.

It’s also got an aroma and aftertaste of boiling sugar. Not that the brew is particularly sweet, but there’s an aroma when you’re making candy and this also has it. Warm and sweet, (and possibly sugar cane-y, but I haven’t gotten the opportunity to sniff many sugar canes, so I may be wrong on that…)

My delight in this tea is also surprising as it’s fairly delicate. I’m a bold flavor girl, and this is not bold, but oy! It’s yummy. If it can hold up to multiple steeps, I’ll be in heaven.

I’m having quite the day (in one of those eye-rolling icky ways) today, so I picked this out because of it’s proposed “worry reducing” properties. It’s a very interesting flavor – the chrysanthemum is almost bitter but not unpleasant at all. It does cover most of the white tea flavor, but you can taste hints of it around the edges.

However, whether it’s psychosomatic or because the day has gotten less crappy, I am a little less stressed. So interesting flavor + less stress = me drinking this tea more.

Oh wow. This is lovely. I bought this packet from their shop in downtown KC, and it’s labeled there as Golden Needle Red Tea, rather than Golden Needle King, but per their site it looks like the same thing.

This, ladies and gentlemen, might be a good replacement for Dawn from the Simple Leaf. Opening the packet I got a giant whiff of cocoa. Yum! It’s a lighter colored tea, since it’s a red tea, but it’s VERY flavorful. It’s got tones of cocoa and pepper and something that makes me think of autum leaves, but in a really good way.

I did this at approx. 190 for 2 minutes. It was made of awesome.

I bought a new cast iron tetsubin yesterday, so I thought I would chrsten it with a traditional asian tea. This is a lovely one. It has a nice aroma but not overwhelming and a light floral and almost buttery flavor.

Tangerine Blossom is a black tea that is made from Shang’s white tea leaves and scented with tangerine blossoms during the oxidation.

This is a pretty good tea, although it leaves something to be desired. Certainly it has one of the most rich, tangy, and citrus filled aromas that I have ever encountered, however the taste falls a few steps below the aroma. Certainly it is still very good, but disappointing based on the aroma.

I steeped this 6 times with 4 g of tea per cup of water.

A clean and crisp taste, this is the best white tea that I have ever tasted. What’s even better is that it can be steeped 5+ times easily. Today I steeped 6 times, starting at 30 seconds and eventually working my way up to 6 minutes. The complexity of the taste changed, but I never felt like I wasn’t getting a good cup.

Anyway, this is the first and possibly the only tea that I will give a perfect rating.

I was never a fan of scented teas until I tried this white tea from Shang. Pao Blossom is probably the best floral scent and taste that I have experienced. Shang makes this using his silver needle king grade leaves and the pao blossom is allowed to infuse into the leaves about 3-4 times over the course of the tea making process.

Not quite as good as the Golden Needle King that Shang offers, this is still a good black tea. Since Shang makes all his teas from white tea leaves they are all much more subtle and smooth rather than strong and robust. This one is no different, and although you can taste the smokiness that comes from oxidation, you can also taste the underlying white tea that was used to produce this.

I find this tea to be a great way to ease into the night, it has a smooth mellow flavor with a light taste of honeysuckle combined with the smooth and light overtones of white peony. Great for 5+ steepings

I’ve never really liked jasmine because I always felt that the jasmine was too overpowering and completely ruined the gentle nature of the underlying teas that I was drinking.

Then I actually found some good jasmine tea that is scented properly and enhances rather than detracts from the overall taste and quality. This jasmine is created with silver needle tea buds and has a very consistent light flavor that reaches a peak by the 2nd-3rd steeping.

I highly recommend this tea!

I always used to complain when I had to drink Jasmine tea. I always thought that the jasmine overpowered the underlying tea and made it undrinkable. Then, I finally tried some GOOD jasmine tea and the difference is night and day.

This jasmine tea from Shang, using his fantastic silver needle king, is a great tea to enjoy anytime during the day.

One of my favorites, this dragonwell features a rich chestnutty taste that is clean and pure. Unfortunately, I don’t think Shang offers this anymore because he doesn’t grow this himself.