The Tao of Tea

I sampled all of Tao of Teas Tulsi Tea’s at this years World Tea Expo and was really impressed with this unique taste. As a non-caffeinated night time hot drink I really enjoy this right before bed. There are subtle hints of clove in this tea that kind of remind me of drinking a coke.

This is the only kind of mate that I’ve ever had, given to me as a gift. It brews to a dark amber with a woody smell. I want to say bamboo, but I know that’s not quite it. The taste is, well, that same woodyness that I can’t identify. It also has a very slight sour taste, kinda like the way black coffee gets sour as it cools. Which isn’t to say it makes you pucker; it’s a very small amount of sourness that is mostly covered by a sweet chocolate flavor.

While I really enjoy this tea, the leaves are so small that they’re a pain to clean out of my teapot, and re-infusing them is never worth it, since the taste becomes watery on only the second steep. So, good on occasion, but not something that I drink very often.

sugoi fruity desu yo! The leaves and twigs do smell of fruit (possibly mango) but that lies beneath the more prominent smell hay & grass. The smell is pretty exciting leading up to actually drinking the tea.

Alright, I don’t taste any remnants of the sweet smell, and sencha of course comes to mind immediately, but with a dry aftertaste of malt. It’s a great morning tea.

I only purchased 1 oz but I will buy this tea again with the regular 3 oz tin; it’s that good.

Niiiiice! Sittin’ here at Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America at the Kaikan (guest house) and I just received my shipment from Tao of Tea!

Thick of smooth earthly tones and a medley of roasted nuts. Hints of grass and veggies and all together this makes up the smell of long thin dried tea leaves that are delicious to eat but one at a time.

Not unlike in smell, this tea brews a thinner and more refined long lasting taste.

In fact, eating a couple dried leaves as a pre-req is a great bonus to drinking this tea!

Time to move on to the next tea….green kukicha!

I have to fall in with the general consensus here – this reminds me of a Bohea. But it does differ in some important ways, too, at least from the two(ish?) Bohea I’ve had.

It smells smoky and a bit bacony while brewing but once it is in my cup, there’s an unexpected but interesting added smell that I can’t quite place. It’s not as rich and velvety smelling as the Bohea I’ve had and a lot of it is due to that extra something – something almost lemon or citrusy?

The taste is very similar to the smell – it’s surprisingly light and bright tasting because of that extra not-quite-lemon flavor. The not-lemon flavor leads each sip followed by smoke and perhaps a hint of cocoa. It’s different from most smokies I’ve had and quite tasty.

As I kept sipping, that not-lemon flavor seemed to gel in my mind as a more figgy or plum taste, reminding me of a softer Yunnan or perhaps a Fujian black. The overall smoke is lighter in intensity than most smokies and doesn’t feel as velvety or thick because of the light fruitiness. That lack of thickness is actually nice in that it lets this tea be a smoky tea for a different mood. Sometimes I’m just not in the mood for a heavy, rich feeling Bohea or a powerful and strong Lapsang. This gives the smokiness but with a light fruity sweetness that makes it not your typical heavy cup of smoke. Perhaps its more of a summer/hot weather smoky tea? Quite enjoyable!

Much thanks to sophistre for the share!

In her log, sophistre mentions that this is a bit of a Dawn taste-a-like, so I went into this cup thinking of my experience with Dawn which perhaps colors my perception a bit, but hey, it happens.

Smelling the dry leaves, there is a hint of cocoa. Not super-intense and a little more on the milk chocolate side of things than most cocoa-smelling teas but very nice. Once brewed, there is a bit of a rough, raw-ish smell that reminds me of a Nilgiri but not quite as raw or unpleasant. I suppose I could call this a slightly textured fresh note.

The taste is faintly cocoa-y on the front, a little rough and nicely solid. The idea of cocoa seems to hang around in my mouth after each sip and that’s kind of nice. The taste profile does remind me quite a bit of Dawn, as sophistre mentions, but less intense. Slurping the tea gives me a bit of smoke and a taste of something similar to burnt sugar and that is definitely very Dawn-like.

I’m not one of the ones looking for a Dawn replacement so I can’t say how nicely this would fill that hole but I find this tea quite enjoyable. It’s a little on the softer flavor intensity side of things which is something that I have been enjoying lately. But even though there are differences in intensity and smoothness, I would probably group this tea (lighter), Dawn (more intense) and my beloved Tan Yang from TeaSpring (smoother) in the same category.
3.5g/7oz

Had this last night to quell a headache. I find this tea so relaxing. I am suprised by how much I like this tea because I really don’t think of rose as a flavor I would be in to, but this tea has completely changed my mind :-).

Facing my fears tea 3! This one I don’t have anything against roses but I have only ever gotten them as presents never had them as a consumable item. I have never really had any floral teas. Thanks again Rachel for the opportunity to try another new tea!

I really like this tea. I am not sure I can exactly describe what about it I like. It is like a nice black tea with a smooth undertone that I am assuming is the rose. Anyway it is a really nice relaxing while at the same time energizing cup of tea. A real mood lifter!

Also this is tasting note number 200 – Woot!!!

Much more delicate and floral when brewed at the recommended temp. Stronger notes of honey/pollen as well.

My first Tao of Tea purchase. I was so surprised to see tea made of tea flowers that I had to get it. And I’m so surprised that more companies don’t include this in their blends or dedicate blends to this. It’s sweet and very flowery, with notes of honey.

Short, not overly hot steep (office semi-hot water dispenser + afternoon need for tea led to an immediate quaffing) created a very mellow and only slightly ah, aromatic brew. This was my first try with Pu Erh and first try with Tao of Tea, and so far the impression was … utterly neutral.

That’s right, this note is to say that this tea had nothing of note. Tomorrow, I try a longer steep with more leaves!

This week has been kind of rough so I just don’t have enough brain power left to do a strong review. But I’m still having new teas so I have to write something down. So I’ve decided to use Magnetic Poetry to write my review.
http://pinkness.danzimmermann.com/2010/08/because-im-dork.html

Translation:
It reminds me of Tea Etc’s Golden monkey, though it is more peppery and fruitier. It’s smooth and gentle with a great smell and aftertaste, both of which hang around once the cup is done (and the cup was gone pretty quickly).

Started to write a tasting note about this one, and have been unable to finish it — I’m having some kind of crazy reaction to something…of the ‘restless/irritable/full-body-tension/creepy-crawly limbs’ variety. It is intensely unpleasant! It cannot conceivably be the tea unless there’s something strange in it that I don’t know about, which seems unlikely. One should hope it wasn’t the tea, because it was rather good! I don’t ever seem to drink greens (discounting matcha), and this was a reminder that I probably should…it is everything the description mentions, and a very mellow, tasty cup. It reminded me of sencha, but less intense. That might seem to imply watery, but such wasn’t the case — it had a very pleasant fullness.

I suppose I ought to strike caffeine off of the list of things I can have today, all things considered. Sadness.

Cooked on the stovetop.

I like this chai with honey. Some chais I find the molasses element of raw, turbinado sugar to be most complementary, but this one loves honey.

It isn’t the most ground-breaking of spice mixes, but it’s good. Let’s be honest here: chai is, unless it’s imbalanced, pretty standard in what it delivers. Most chai blends use the same Masala-like spices. Those that improvise on this formula succeed or fail but still retain something essentially chai-like, and fill the same niche as a beverage. Some of us will prefer chai that leans on one spice or another more heavily than the rest, because individual tastes vary, but most of us who like chai in a general way will be happy to drink these variations on a theme, too.

What I particularly like about this chai, aside from the way it makes delicious friends with honey, is that it is rocket fuel.

I am not even joking.

A double-cup-deep mug of this, and I am good to go all day long.

Some days, that isn’t necessary…

And some days, it really, really, really is.

Here’s hoping that I can actually manage to herd cats well enough to get my protagonists arrested today, shall we? They have been defying me for weeks.

Okay, this time with a shorter steep and no additives and I’m much happier. The balance seems much better, the smoke is still there but not as harsh and the smell is simply delightful. Ultimately, though, it’s similar enough to Scarlet Sable that I’d feel repetitive stocking my pantry with this tea, especially when I like the slightly more complex flavor of SS. Still gonna enjoy this one while I have it!

Wait, did I just select something with rooibos over something without? That’s gotta be a sign of the apocalypse.

Okay, I’m having the exact same problem as sophistre with this tea. I am not quite sure what to make of it – it confuses me. The smell reminds me of Samovar’s Scarlet Sable but the taste is different. Both the EG and smoke flavors are stronger in this one. The EG is more… perfumed? But not in a evil perfume-y EG way that makes me think I’m drinking those little decorative soaps. The smoke flavor is more… acrid? But not in a thick, tarry way that feels like a combination of smoke, road tar and syrup. This one doesn’t have quite the same smoothness as Scarlet Sable and is a bolder tea. Overall, I prefer Scarlet Sable but I’m not writing this one off yet.

I need to play with this more, spend a bit of time with it, before I can give it a rating. Something in the taste of this makes me feel that there is user error involved – the balance seems a little wonky. Like I used too much leaf or steeped too long. Perhaps it needs more sugar or less milk? Or maybe no additives at all? I feel like this is right on the cusp of greatness and then I screwed it up.

Thanks to sophistre, I get a chance to try a new Bohea. Yay! I just had Teas Etc’s Bohea this morning, so I can’t help but make comparisons. If I didn’t know better, I would swear they aren’t the same type of tea. This one is much milder (in color, smell and taste) than the Teas Etc Bohea. The smoky flavor – which is rich and thick in the TE version – is mild here, somewhat of an afterthought. The first descriptor that crossed my mind with this one, both when smelling and tasting, was ‘sweet’. Because it is. It’s sweet, soft, gentle and has a hint of smoke in the aftertaste that kind of poofs up my sinuses after a sip.

But that makes it sound like, compared to TE’s Bohea, ToT’s version is lacking. It isn’t. It’s just totally different. TE’s version reminds me of lapsang with the edges smoothed out and no tar. ToT’s version reminds me of TeaSpring’s Tan Yang Te Ji with less oomph and MPD-esque complexity. I have to be in a smoky tea mood to drink TE’s Bohea. This one, being milder, wouldn’t require a smoky mood.

So even though they are the same type of tea, they really are totally different. I could see keeping both in my pantry without feeling I was duplicating teas. I could also see using this one as a tea to ease a newbie into smoky teas. It’s really quite tasty.

The second steep (5min) is a little milder than I hoped for (still tasty though) so I think next time I’ll extend that steep a bit for a touch more flavor.

Don’t know what happened to this tea – this used to be one of my steadfast staples I would return to on a really regular basis and have been buying for years. It’s been replaced by a much lighter oxidation version with hardly any of those wonderfully chocolaty, sumptuous qualities I fell in love with. Natural notes of bergamot, rose, and fragrant hardwoods are also gone. More astringent, lighter body, more vegetal. The accentuation of florals is nice when brewed with lower temp water ‘round 85C, but not to the point that I’d go out of my way to get it.

Bumping it down 12 points. I’ll continue buying this after the next harvest period in the hopes of a return to the Noir-ish side that this tea used to embody.

Hello, steepsterites!

I’m just getting back into the swing of things after a week of playing around town with my mother and stepsister, who were visiting. It was a wonderful, busy, walking-intensive, eating-intensive time, but it completely prevented me from drinking tea, so I am returning to this weird little hobby of mine with glee…and on a crazy note!

This morning, I was SURE that I had found another distributor for Dawn.

I got an order from Tao of Tea a few days ago that I hadn’t been able to tap into. There were teas in there that I was more interested in than this one (I couldn’t even really remember what this one was when I saw the name) but when I opened the package to sniff it and was hit with an intense whiff of dark cocoa, I had to switch things up.

In the interests of full disclosure I should say that I may (and almost definitely have), in my excitement, have screwed this cup up. I was so convinced from the smell that this was a black tea that I dumped 205 degree water on it without hesitation, only to discover in looking it up again that it’s an oolong…180-200 by their recommendations, yerk. An oolong from a spot twenty miles from Darjeeling, or so it would seem.

Once brewed, the notes that I associate with darker oolongs are more present. There’s a muted and slightly earthy cedar smell mixed in with the cocoa, along with the hash-like scent that I remember picking up in such profusion from Dawn. It all blends together to create something like a very good, sweet cup of black coffee — not the Maxwell House stuff, not the Starbucks stuff, but more like the little single-estate South American coffees I remember grabbing at Whole Foods and grinding myself (names sadly forgotten; it has been ages since I had coffee last).

It produces a lighter, brighter cup than Dawn — no surprises there — but the flavors involved are so very similar that I think anybody grieving the disappearance of The Simple Leaf could do worse than to secure themselves a cup of this oolong. To me, it waffles between being very obviously a darker oolong with all of those rich, complex flavors, and my memory of Dawn, with its intense cocoa personality.

Might have to make a cup of Dawn after this to compare.

I revisited this tea ‘cause I have a hard time imagining such a high score for a relatively cheap tea and from this company. Tao of tea has some tasty teas, but they really don’t jump to my mind when I’m thinking of high quality.

So, I wanted to knock the score down on this… I was totally biased in re-reviewing it – looking for things to be wrong, not looking for any layers of underflavors, drinking it back quickly, not really paying attention to true mass-volume-temperature, purposefully scraping up fannings left in the tin…
Yet, this holds true to my prior review. It’s a good Darjeeling. I’m sorry for the blatant prejudice I threw at the company – I should have reminded myself that I’ve had good teas from Rishi and Peet’s as well and I really don’t hold them in the light of Tao of Tea.
Little pointless posting this note when I’m basically saying “see previous note,” but the fact that it stood up to biased reevaluation says something in my mind.

3g in 155ml water heated to 90 degrees C, brewed in a glazed ceramic gaiwan.

Pretty leaves with a large percentage unbroken. Brazilnut, untoasted hazelnut, macadamia, toasted sesame, grapes, and dried oak leaf dry fragrance. Wet leaf aroma more of an orchid bark and moss with a dry Chardonnay grape expression. Liquor color ocher to light red orange with great clarity in a shallow white cup.

Nice, hefty Darjeeling with distinctive characteristics that can cut through even scenting. Muscat grape note is much more obvious than many Darjeelings claiming to tout the characteristic and it sails nicely with the honey wheat toast sweetness and light woody notes. There’s sesame, malt, adobe clay, and orchid in the aroma as well… And a bit of currant and juniper or pinyon-like resin that comes out of there in the background. A real joy to just sit back and take the aroma in off this one. Good body, balanced astringency. Sweet, juicy, and crisp. The muscat grape is actually present in the flavor, not just the aroma. Toasty taste with just a hint of citrus blossom.

I generally dislike scenting, but I like using this as a base for home made Earl Grey since it can cut through the aroma of diced and dried bergamot peel and the aromas naturally compliment one another.

Second steep

Smells and tastes are the same as the first steep but significantly less pronounced.

Is a bit too weak for a second steep, needs to be mixed with another tea to survive multiple cups.

First steep

Tiny hint of a sweet scent. Subtle bitter taste. A hint of an almost tangy aftertaste that’s gone before you realize it.

Very relaxing, very drinkable. Definitely worth a second steep.