The East India Company
Edit CompanyPopular Teas from The East India Company
See All 18 TeasRecent Tasting Notes
It has been a long time since my last review, but I am finally back in the country and yearning to try a new tea and share my experience with all of you! For this first review, we have “Cannon Ball” by The East India Company. While I would love to tell you exactly what this tea is, I am not quite sure. Their website lists it as a green tea, and the description suggests it is a green tea, yet the label on the container specifically says “It is a lightly fermented oolong tea.”
Well….okay then! This tea basically looks like an oversized version of gunpowder green tea, thus the naming fits, cleverly. The smell of the dry leaves is faintly reminiscent of that smokiness present in gunpowder green tea. Yet the slight floral taste brings to mind…shockingly…light oolongs. This tea becomes more and more mysterious, and I grow more and more curious!
Unsure as to the water temperature, I opt to use 1 cup of water prepared for green tea (to be on the safe side), coupled with 1 teaspoon of leaves. What works for gunpowder greens and oolongs should work for this too, right?
Three minutes of steep time, says the packaging. I can do that! (My time overseas has not taken from my tea-making skills.) The resulting brew is a pale yellow-green and smells like…hmmm…very light, floral oolong. Not overly floral, as one might encounter in the tasting of a jasmine oolong. At the same time, it carries the gunpowder green tea flavor, but with a little extra, as though one took a pouchong and mixed it with a gunpowder. This is definitely different, in a pleasant way. Overall, however, the brew seems a bit weak, and perhaps a longer steep time is required.
I love the smokiness of gunpowder green tea, and the fact that such a quality carried over in a new way to this tea definitely caught my attention. While this is an interesting and decent tea, it might be better to order a small sample to try initially. I thought I would love this tea, yet I now can only see myself drinking it occasionally, not every day. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would rate it a 73/100.
Preparation
Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea.
This is a good one. It is rather bold! I tossed out my first brewing of this tea, because I had used too much leaf – the smaller cut of the leaves makes for an incredibly strong tea, and when too much leaf is used, the tea becomes too strong and even a little bitter. But I remeasured, using a little less leaf this time, and I’m quite enjoying this cuppa.
The flavor is rich and satisfying. It has a citrus-y tone to it that is sweet and tangy. There are hints of spice to it as well, but not spicy spice. It is more of a sweet, exotic kind of spice taste.
A very enjoyable, revitalizing brew!
I had to add this tea to Steepster! The East India Company has a wonderful history of teas. This gunpowder tea is beautiful in the tin, rolled into tiny bullets if you will! Once steeped, they immediately unfurl into nearly perfect, whole leaves. Of course, none of this affects the taste all that much, but it’s part of the experience of a ‘gunpowder’ tea… ;)
The tea is both fresh and earthy. Not bitter at all in comparison to many other green teas I’ve tried. It’s a bit of a treasure to me so I like to reinfuse it a few times – it stands up quite well to this.
All in all this tea will appeal to those who enjoy a bit of history with their cup of tea. Enjoy!
Preparation
Sipping on this now…previously reviewed here…
http://sororiteasisters.com/2011/03/29/kama-sutra-revitalising-tea-from-the-east-india-company/
YUM!!!
Backlogging…review coming soon…
Waiting patiently. Marked as “Like” based on past positive experiences. :-)
Oh! Yes!!! I enjoyed this tea!!! :)
I have it scheduled for 6pm est tonight :)
Please, can someone explain me what Backlogging means ?! I am french, so I don’t understand everything, and I read that word often without knowing what it means!!! Thank you!
