The Tao of Tea

My first experience with Pu-er tea. Great flavor, very earthy, and it gets a BUNCH of infusions! My Chinese friend says the taste reminds him of his trip to the Yunan province =) This is supposedly a very healthy tea. It’s supposed to help lower cholesterol levels.

F. I over-steeped this one by 1.5 mins. I wanted 4 instead of 5.5mins, but the tea still came out well! I’m not detecting any astringency… just that rich jasmine taste! Hopefully the second steep is flavorful, despite slightly over-steeping the first.

Probably my most favorite tea right now. I love the jasmine flavor!

Grrrrr – the hot water dispenser at work makes water at 180F. The Tao of Tea recommends 190F for full flavor for this tea… I’m getting a good cup at 180F for 3mins, but I need to try it at 190F.

I love this tea! My love for Oolong teas started with Ti Kuan Yin, but I was glad to find this tea - it’s a cheaper and just-about-as-awesome.

This tea was a nice golden brown with the aroma of ginger, heh, and also some light citrus notes. On the tongue this is a pleasant non tannic tea, it has a light tart taste on the tongue and is very easy drinking. This is my first steeping of this tea, usually light teas like this don’t hold up as well to multiple steepings. So we shall see. A great second tea in the August steepster box.

This is my first time having a Ginger tea and the extra spice notes at the end of my sip is surprising. The tea is mellow but has a nice aroma and an interesting kick. Not bad.

I accidentally made this with a little more tea than usual and a little too little water… so we’ll see how this goes.

The scent is very pleasant, a touch of sweet peach and a barely-there spice from the ginger. Cannot pick up the black tea’s scent other than as a solidity to the over-all smell.

The taste is very good, and I’m not one to usually like flavored teas. The black tea is not strong, it just holds the complete flavor together. The ginger makes for a vague spiciness along the mid tongue while the peach gives just a hint of balancing fruit tones.

No particular flavor stands out on this, rather they mix and balance very pleasantly. I’m glad the Steeper Select club sent me this as it’s one I wouldn’t have otherwise tried.

A very tasty tea. Buttery, honeyed, and a bit floral, the dreamy creamy tea pleases all the way down. It’s one of my favorites right now. The aroma is great right when you tilt the gaiwan lid. It just punches you in the face with awesome. Good for many many steeps depending on how you brew. I’ll be keeping this stocked in my cupboard.

Full Review: http://www.tea-tank.com/?p=10

Tea of the morning and my second tea from the Steepster August box……

I have had a few ginger peach teas in my tea journey, and this one is different. The ginger is the main note, with subtle hints of peachy sweetness. One ginger tea that stands out in my memory did not work for me as the ginger made the tea more bitter than spicy. This one works, though. The ginger in this one makes it refreshing and spicy without a hint of bitterness. A side effect….I can breathe very well. That morning sinus that can linger for a bit is gone.

I do like that this is not a tea I would have normally chosen due to my past experiences with very ginger teas. Thank you, Steepster, for chosing this one.

24 oz teapot, 4 1/2 actual tsp tea, freshly boiled water (in the cheap electric kettle from a big box store, because I have two from a recent product launch that quit working), 4 minutes. Lightly sweetened.

Honey and licorice. Mild and unimpressive at first, but I found it makes a great iced tea and it pairs amazingly well with natural honey (I rarely use honey with any other teas). Sensitive to temp as well, make sure your water is not too hot or brewed for too long as it will become astringent and bitter. I’ve found it blends well with more robust and vegetal teas as well as mint for refreshing iced tea.

A sick-day sip down. Even the dust filled bottom scoop of tea is smooth andsweet. It feels like there’s a scoop of apricot compote in each sip. I took a big whiff from the tin before I brewed this pot. The rich honey scent will be fondly remembered.

I never thought I’d find a black tea as smooth as a silver needle but here it is! The first sip of this was taked standing up, library book absent mindly being skimmed. The second was taken sitting down there with focused awe. The liquor is so dark but tastes like the lightest honey and apricots. Lots of floral notes and honey.
This is the first black tea I will greedily guard in as massive a quantity as possible.

Second steep: This bizarrely tastes like keemun and rooibos. Come to think of it, that may be a nice combination to try.

I bought tea advertised as “Osmanthus Oolong” by Tao of Tea, but the leaves I got are definitely a green oolong, not like the picture of the more deeply oxidized leaves! Mine are tightly rolled green leaves sprinkled with dainty little osmanthus flowers! I drink this pretty often since I got a big sack of it. I’m pretty relaxed about steeping times and temperature – I give the leaves a quick rinse to open them up, but then I use water that’s been boiled and has cooled off for a bit.

The first infusion, predictably, packs the most osmanthus flavor. The osmanthus combines with the oolong to create a bright apcricot inflected brew, with a sweet, fruity sparkling citrus quality and a lightly green floral tone. The apricot flavor reminds me more of dried than fresh apricot. It has a slightly astringent, sort of sour aftertaste, but that’s not necessarily a strike against it, as it seems in keeping with the fruity osmanthus flavor.

Subsequent infusions lose a lot of that sparkly quality and steer closer to the smoother, rounder flavor profile of a typical green oolong, but with a lingering fruity-floral finish. I usually get a good three or four infusions out of this tea before I move on! I like this tea in the mornings because of its refreshing, sunny flavor.

I was a little scared to try this, for fear that it would end up tasting very smoky. But I’m finding this to be delightfully roasty-toasty and very comforting. Like curling up to a warm fire when the first chilly evenings begin in autumn. It has a smoky tone to it, to be sure, but, I think that it is nicely balanced with the roasted flavor. It’s really quite lovely, and I’m looking forward to several flavorful infusions.

I’m not sure if this is the same “Tao of Tea” as I noticed there were two in the library…
Either way, I only have a sample of this, and I think it will stay that way! The Lapsang I tried at Teaopia remains my favourite.
This one, it was good, for the most part. I think. I’d have to play around with it before declaring it unworthy, and only in comparison. I did quite enjoy the flavour, which is the main point of a tea in my books, thus giving this one it’s relatively high rating despite all my moaning about it.
But there is something missing. The other ones I’ve tried have a depth and smoother base.
Also, I used this as a marinade for my roast pork. Not being a fan of roast anything, it was just ok… (stringy meat? no thanks!) but my parents love it so that’s what we had in the house *sighs
Next time, I’ll make it into a gravy.

I’m starting to get tired of berry cider teas! Sure, they’re great but how are they not all the same??? Slight variations don’t make or break it for me…
My tess tea is perfect, tart and rich and sweet all at once. Sure there is probably hibiscus in there but it seems to work.
This one, well it was certainly sweet, and berry like. I’m not sure about it, but not really curious enough to give it a second chance.
meh.

It turns out that this tea stands up nicely to having milk added as well without losing any of its rose flavour. This is a still a girly tea. ;)

I like this one – the roses aren’t overpowering the rest of the tea and the black tea base is nice and smooth and mellow with very little bitterness or astringency despite my not adding milk to this tea as I usually do with black teas. It has a nice, subtly sweet tone to it that I enjoyed – though I have to admit it seems like quite a girly tea.

This is one of my favorite silver needles to date. It takes a long time to make as at least ten minutes are needed to admire the the thin, clean leaves, the closest to real needles I’ve ever seen. They have no hair and tinkle like crystal in glass or ball bearings in their tin. It can only be summarized as futuristic. The dry smell has a promising fruity aroma that reminds me of plums.
It steeps up a remarkable compromise of savory the first steep with the sweeter fruity taste emerging a bit more on the second steep. It can go with everything and loves a good nonfiction book. I’m glad I can get ths one in bulk now.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea to try.

This is much better than I expected it to be. It is incredibly mild, even the minty note is mild. The tulsi has an interesting peppery note to it too, slight, but it’s there. Very soothing and comforting to sip.

As promised, the drawing was done and the one generous, ALS warrior emerged to win the 1# of Organic Earl Grey from the Tao of Tea.
I thank everyone who took the time to read my posts, who responded with such kind words and who offered from their heart well wishes on the quest to end Lou Gehrig’s disease/MND. I was touched to see that the Steepster community responded to my call for support and thank each and every one of you.

Without further embelishment, the winner is:
Angrboda
I will get this shipped out to you ASAP! Thank you Thank you!

Just a friendly reminder to all the Steepster Earl Grey lovers….I am taking off next week to participate in an event called the Tri State Trek, a 270 mile in 3 day bike ride to support ALSTDI, a medical organization devoted to finding a cure for MS/ALS. Anyone who donates in the next 2 days and placed ‘tea’ in the donation box is nominated for a drawing to win 1# of Organic Earl Grey by the Tao of Tea that will be shipped to your door! Along with my heartfelt thanks. You can make a donation at :
http://tst.als.net/alswarriorohio2011
Tea is an act of daily awareness and contemplation, it can also be an act of charity and compassion.
Thank you. I will be announcing the winner Tues. July 22nd. I have already had 3 wonderful members of this community donate to the effort.
Namaste.

Ok Earl Grey lovers do I have a treat for you! As some who have explored my profile may have gleaned, I am not only a tea lover, but I am also an active cyclist and charity athlete.
I also have the fortune of working for a company that loves its tea and coffee and over the years I have been in the position to do tea talks and lectures (doing about a dozen a year); many of them charitable. One that I love to do each year is the Groveport Ladies Spring Tea Fling, a charity event that serves the local community.
Many of my generous tea vendors donate tea for this event and this springs event there was a hold over: 1 # of Organic Earl Grey from the Tao of Tea.
As it so happens, I am in the process of fund raising for a cause I feel very strongly about: ALS, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease and outside the US as Motor Neuron Disease (MND) or Charcot’s Disease, it is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks motor neurons in the brain (upper motor neurons) and spinal cord (lower motor neurons) and affects muscle function.
This disease killed my mom in 2006. So this is personal.
So for the last 5 years I have done a 270 mile in 3 day bike ride from Boston to NY to raise money for ALSTDI, a medical research center devoted to finding a cure for ALS/MS. I am down to my last 2 weeks before the ride and I’m still only ½ way to the goal and could use your help.
So from now until Tues. the 19th, I am asking this wonderful tea community to please consider donating to my ALS ride at :
http://tst.als.net/alswarriorohio2011
and I’m asking that you kindly forward this message on to others you might know, as this disease is more common than you think and it is devastating to families and to lives.
What does this have to do with tea?
Well, if anyone makes a donation from the Steepster community and puts ‘tea’ in the ‘comments’ box on the donation they make, on July 18th I will draw from that group of tea fans a name and they will received, shipped to their home, a full pound of Organic Earl Grey from the Tao of Tea!
My mother loved tea. I would love to save another tea lover from ALS by doing more than just hoping for a cure.
Thank you,
Shawn Schulte, ALSWARRIOR – http://alswarriorohio.wordpress.com – AKA Kashyap