ZenTea

Tastes better than it smells. The initial scent is strawberry gelatin, and I don’t mean jello. The actual flavor is quite nice. Strawberries picked from the forest floor.

Pina colada with a nutmeg garnish, coconut macaroon . A shame ZenTea stopped carrying this tea.

Yummy shirley temple and maraschino cherries. Tastes more black than green.

Smells exactly like an orange scented bar of soap I had in 2005. More green forward, orange is on the back end. Tea is quite bitter. It’s missing the sour tang of a true citrus beverage.

Not overly vegetal

Smooth raspberry deliciousness. Tastes like the smell of a strawberry shortcake doll or a scratch and sniff sticker. I don’t usually go for the flavored teas, but when in the mood this hits the spot. Not too sweet or artificial.

Tastes verdant like a green tea with a smokey dry after taste.

Light taste a little green. Tastes like little purple flowers

A nice spiced black tea. Light on the orange flavor.

Smells like a bit-o-honey. Vanilla, coconut, and honey. A little bit astringent towards the end of the note.

A little too soapy for my taste.

Like taking a walk on a warm dirty road. Tastes like campfires and toasted graham crackers.

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #80 overall / Tea #47 for February

Saturday 2/27 so my bucket list has a visit every MLS stadium for an away game against my team the Columbus Crew (men’s professional soccer team). In fall of 2018 I went to Atlanta and got a bunch of teas from ZenTea in Atlanta Georgia. This one I got in mind for my boyfriend since he loves, blueberries. Alas he’s not a black tea fan. Anyway found enough to have one hot plain cuppa and I’m brewing it up now.

#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown #sipdownchallenge

I received this sample in the last Here’s Hoping Teabox, so thank you to tea-sipper for organizing and to all who contributed! This is apparently from ZenTea but not that ZenTea (the one that became “zentealife.com” and started selling teaware instead of tea… I’m fairly sure I’ve tried a tea of theirs before, long ago…) as this ZenTea (zenteaco.com) still has an active webpage and appears to be a mom-and-pop teashop out of Georgia.

Fair warning… I’m not a pu-erh person. Not sure why I decided to brew this today, other than the fact I have a lot of pu samples sitting around that aren’t getting drunk, and I keep thinking, “One day, I will get all the amazing tasting notes that I keep reading about in everyone else’s pu reviews instead of just dirt and swamp water.”

100ml shiboridashi | 5.5g | 205F | Rinse/10s/15s/20s/25s/30s/35s/40s

Threw the entire 5.5g sample in my 100ml shiboridashi. After the rinse, the leaf just… had that same marshy swampy smell I seem to always get from pu-erh. Here we go again. Am I broken, guys?

Same earthy/wet dirt/marshy sort of flavor I seem to always get from puerh. I’ve definitely had some that felt a little more abrasive in that flavor than this one, as this isn’t leaning as heavily in that marshy/vegetal realm that I usually get and instead is more like a damp, rank cave, which… is still not my favorite, but preferable to me between the two. It steeped for a long time, but the flavor notes never changed for me. Ah well. Will it ever happen for me? Dunno…

I am just starting to explore Pu-Erh teas and discovered these mini cakes while at my local ZenTea. On first steeping, the tea has a robust flavor and is as dark as a cup of coffee. The flavor is earthy and rich. Distinctive and not for everyone, but enjoyable. Also tried a second steeping and found that flavor slightly less earthy but still worth drinking! I will note I did NOT brew this in a gaiwan.

There was a grassy first impression, most likely from the lemongrass. The spiciness of the ginger is not overbearing, giving a nice pleasantness. The aftertaste is a beautiful refreshing mint. It was nice feeling all that is part of the tea; the lemongrass, ginger and mint. I did try it out with a bit of sugar; it downs the grassy first taste and brings out more a milky mint taste.

I found this tea quite interesting. The color was a lovely reddish brown. It had the smell of spices and cinnamon. The taste quite that spice flavor, but a little calmer than the aroma. Oddly, it gave me a numbness feeling to my mouth (I don’t tend to drink chai, mind you). I did put a little bit of sugar in it, and surprisingly gave it a milky flavor, which was quite pleasant, actually.

I loved this tea from the first I tried it. It’s smoky, woodsy smell is just so distinct, giving you the idea of a warm fire. The taste is equally pine and oak taste, very full-body, smooth and turns slightly sweet in the end. The aftertaste lingers pleasantly for a while, reminding you of this beautiful elixir long after you finished drinking. The smell and taste reminded me of my mother country, Mexico, when food is cooked in charcoal and wood, very lovely~.

I tried this tea at the Zentea house. On the nose, it was sweet with the slight bitterness of a black tea. The flavor was more bitter in the beginning and the after taste is the sweet creme brulee taste.

This tea is a mild green tea with earthy tones. There are slight floral notes. On the nose, it doesn’t have a strong smell at all, but the taste is good.

The flavor was extremely mild, in my opinion, but the earthy-floral aroma helped make up for that. I ordered it with some berry scones during one of my visits to Zen Tea. The scones definitely helped bolster the flavor without overpowering it with too much of a sweet taste.

I tried this in house at Zen Tea House. It’s one of the best Oolong teas I’ve ever had, and I didn’t feel the need to sweeten it at all. It was more of a green taste with a hint of floral to it.

Tihis green tea had a very light color. More of an earthy taste. There was a strong aftertaste and could also smell the tea after the cup was empty. had this at Zen Tea and did not brew it myself.

The one is quite lovely: true vanilla and a hint of almond. Rich smooth rooibos base beautifully carries the flavours. Like a vanilla almond creme caramel.

What a shame that Zen Tea Life is no longer selling teas! This is one that I’d like to have more of.