Silk Road

This is the best tea discovery I’ve made since I first tried genmaicha. I’ve fallen in love with steamed mulberry leaf tea. The leaves smell of a toasty oolong, and the steeped liquid tastes of it also.

It steeps a greenish colour and re-steeps very well. I’ve had it hot and cold: both were fantastic. This is a caffeine free alternative to the toasty oolongs I crave so often. There is a note of seaweed and a good (not not astringent or bitter) green tea). There is a bit of sweetness, notes of minerals and ocean. Mostly it tastes like an oolong that you can’t oversteep and never gets bitter.

Tasted at the San Francisco Tea Festival. A very nice Fujian black tea.

I went to the Silk Road tea store in Victoria and found this gem. I have not yet tried a peach black tea as good as this one, and I have tried multiple since trying this tea.
However, it was extremely pricey and I only received about 25g for 5 dollars.

tried to update the image for this tea… steepster is not in the mood to accomodate.

i found this tea very smooth, not astringent, not bitter… when i picked it up it read rather as a vanilla berry earl grey. that said i found it rather muddled; definitely not an earl grey, hardly a hint of bergamot…oddly it tastes fairly significantly of apples?

smooth black caffeinated apples.. it’s not bad. just lacking focus.

Sipdown (630)!

I feel like this sipdown was a long time coming, and honestly I’m cool with it. I still think this is a nice tea and all, but I’ve become less enamored with it over time and it’s settled into a bit of a place of consistency for me where I don’t feel like I’m getting new experiences from it. Plus, I’m just not in a ‘bergamot’ mood right now.

So, basically ready to move on!

Selected this a few weeks ago as a sort of “bedtime” tea; I knew I was taking a gamble with the black tea base in terms of caffeine but I just had a gut feeling that this would be exactly what I needed to wind down for the evening and finally get some sleep. Turns out, the black tea was not an issue – instead the combo of medium bodied, citrusy and floral bergamot and light handed lavender notes was exactly what I needed to just release all the stress I was holding in my shoulders/upper back and just totally conk out for the evening. Just out like a rock.

Good shit.

Ironically, I picked this one out because I was actually craving the bergamot in it which is a thing that doesn’t happen often – I’m not the biggest bergamot person. Even stranger, steeped up I couldn’t taste any bergamot at all! Instead it was sweet and very berry heavy. I mean, totally delicious but not what I was craving. I probably should have just picked out a straight Earl Grey…

Still an enjoyable cup though.

Cold Brew!

This cold brew was fascinating! I don’t know if it’s because I let it steep for like three whole days or if it was the result of just a different ratio of ingredients being scooped out of the tine for the brew but this came out VERY rich and sweet with really intense, delightful jammy black currant notes and a smooth bergamot undertone.

It reminded me of very fancy, very British jams/preserves and… kind of really strongly had me craving scones? Really lovely!

Iced.

But it was a little astringent and too heavy on the lavender, so I added some honey to soften the overall flavour. It was a bit sweet with the honey, but still an improvement. I still really love the red berry notes of the tea overall, and I think that very faint hint of bergamot is a nice touch too. I just wish there was less lavender.

Iced.

Brought this one to work (DT work) with me the other night because I thought it might be interesting to share it with my coworkers given that the tea in it is Canadian grown. Sure enough, they were all fascinated by it so I made about four Berry Victoria iced teas for us all to sample/try.

I don’t know that I personally like this one better as an iced tea as opposed to hot, although I did still enjoy it. It’s just that as an iced tea the lavender and bergamot notes in the blend come off quite strong, and I’m not the biggest fan of strong, concentrated lavender flavour. Plus, I just really enjoy the berry in the blend and I wanted a little more of it. Still not bad though – and I’m happy I got to share it with so many people.

Another from yesterday;

My little sister and mother were over because we had spent the morning Christmas shopping and I’d invited them back for tea. I let my mom pick the tea, and she wanted this one. Probably because she’s the one who bought it for me and she hadn’t had a chance to try it yet. I like this one, so certainly no complaints on my end.

I had to break out one of my giant Western sized pots; ‘cause I was definitely not gonna take the time to make three individual mugs and making this one Gong Fu? Probably not the best plan. I’m sure that the pot liked the attention – it only gets used when I’m making tea for three+ people which isn’t often.

This one went over well with everyone; I found it particularly floral and soothing and my mom really liked the red berry notes that are always present in this one. Surprisingly, even my little sister liked it and there are very few teas she actually drinks/enjoys. Most of the ones she is into have sprinkles and icecream bits and other things like that as well; so for her to enjoy a flavoured tea that’s a bit more on the nuanced side of things was definitely an achievement.

My commute tea from this morning!

Drank this one with almond milk – I wasn’t 100% sure how the milk would affect the flavour of the blend but it actually had a positive effect on it. Basically, I got this lovely added creaminess and thickness of mouthfeel and then the sweet, nutty notes added dimension to the sweet berry medley and floral notes. I really, really felt like it was elevated into something more elaborate and nuanced. It really felt like I was drinking a completely different blend!

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7aOWIFgIZQ&index=3&list=WL

Cold Brew, drank two ways!

The first half I drank just as it was after being strained and this tasted pretty solid. Definitely no astringency or bitterness – and I found the currant notes I observed the first time I tried this hot tasted even stronger and richer. The finish was nice and lightly floral as well, which was pleasant too. One thing that was a bit different was that I didn’t notice any sort of citrus or bergamot notes with this cold brew.

The second way I tried it was with some added dark rum because I thought that might make a nice “tea cocktail” type berry punch sort of thing. I wouldn’t recommend going down that route though; even though I was careful about the proportions I was mixing this came out tasting rather anti-septic and unpleasant.

Song Pairing, for the first pleasant way I tried this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDKmKJBhEx4&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=3

So my mom was recently in British Columbia on vacation and she decided to surprise me with some tea she brought back with her! Namely, a tin of this one. I’m not sure if I’ve ever tried anything from Silk Road – although I’m definitely familiar with the company.

She picked this one out for me because it actually uses black tea grown in Canada and she thought that would be something more unique – and she’s right! Even though I’m familiar with the tea farm here in Canada I haven’t tried it, so this is a really cool opportunity. I’m skeptical of how it’ll taste; there’s kind of a reason that tea isn’t a tea growing country and just a consuming country. Geographically, we’re just not really an ideal growing country. So what unique traits will our terroir have?

Initial impression…

This is nice; it’s kind of soft and medium bodied and I really like the fruity/berry notes from the added ingredients in the blend. It’s a bit of a mixed berry sort of taste, with a strong red and black currant flavour being the standout fruit note. There’s a lovely floral undertone; I definitely feel like I’m tasting more of the rose than the lavender though even though I saw much more lavender in the dry leaf than rose. Mmm! Berries and roses! Very tasty, fresh and a little romantic, no?

That’s the strongest part of the flavour profile, for sure – but there’s also a VERY LIGHT citrus/bergamot note in the bottom of the sip that kind of hides behind the other fruity notes. I guess there’s vanilla in here too, but I don’t taste the vanilla. I think maybe it’s just acting as part of whatever is making this so smooth and seamless. It’s hard to taste the specific notes of the black tea – but I think it’s adding a subtle malt flavour to this, and it’s just a hint astringent/tannic. It leaves a really faint astringency on the bed of your tongue – and it’s just light enough that I actually find it relatively pleasant.

So yeah, overall my first impression of this one is really positive. I very much like the currant notes I’m tasting in particular. Personally, I think this one was a much better pick for me than the other teas that she picked out last time that she was in BC. Maybe that’s because it’s from a higher quality tea company than Granville Island (which just sources their teas and doesn’t blend the majority of them themselves) but maybe she was just a bit more thoughtful in her choice this time as well.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erywPdFfORE&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=4

Wonderful, wonderful lemongrass. This is the best straight tasting lemongrass tea I’ve ever tried. I just love it. It is perfect for late night study sessions. It perks you up without the caffeine and is so refreshing. One of my favourites!

Had this the same way I did last time, with about a 2 minute steep, and unsweetened. It’s really good. I chose it because I woke up not feeling great and with a headache, so I gravitated to this. It really is nice and I am gonna have to buy a tin when my sample runs out.