ZenTea

This tea was a little too earthy for me. Oolong teas are known for having a strong flavor. This tea kind of overwhelmed me with the woodsy flavor. It smells good and that’s probably why the flavor threw me off.

The cinnamon is very strong, and the rose adds a special kind of sweetness. The two work as a wonderful compliment to each other. There is a nice balance of different kinds of sweet. The apple is very subtle and provides a nice balance for the drink. The flavor of the green tea is somewhat lost, but I didn’t mind. I still recommend the drink.

The bitterness of this tea is not very pronounced, and it took me several sips to find it. The strawberry flavor is subtle, too, and it offers a little sweetness. It could use more of that sweetness. I recommend this tea for those who want something different from the standard black tea.

This is a solid green tea blend. My only complaint is the strawberry isn’t strong enough; the papaya flavor is very dominating on my tongue. I could still smell the strawberry. I would recommend this to any green tea or papaya lover.

I write here again because I really love this tea~. It has a beautiful full-bodied, earthy taste. There is the slight fermentation taste with rice accents. It is a great choice during the cold-weather, being a warm-nature tea. For people who are trying to cut down on coffee, it is a great start. I have been brewing this tea for many friends, and they have all enjoyed it~.

I have just been introduced to Pu-erh 3 months ago, and it was shocking. A good shocking, to be more precise, because it has such wonderful aroma and taste. The color is such a beautiful deep red. The smell smooth and calming, you can smell the fermentation and woodsiness. The taste is equally smooth, not bitter, woodsy, musty, rice taste that transforms to sweetness. I do hold the pu-erh compacted more to my preference than loose leafed, but it is still very enjoyable and great to make multiple brews.

It was quite a shocker to me, actually. Not at all in a bad way, but just in a way that I had not experienced before. I am quite used to green and black teas, so the nuances of this tea were very new to me. It had many flavors, including the hint of chocolate. To me (and m sister who tried it out with me) reminded us very much like wine, an alcoholic scent. It had some spicy hints, and then turned sweet. Not to bad, to recap.

The smell was tart and sweet, the raspberry very present in the scent. The taste was first a bit bitter and tart, but then turn to a smooth sweetness, which was a nice relief from the first surprise. For someone who has a sweet-tooth, this would be good transition tea.

It had a beautiful nutty and tarty smell, nothing too overpowering. The taste was just as good, a bit smoky and woodsy, with the almond accenting very nicely. It was smooth, again nothing overpowering and left a nice sweet aftertaste. I will definitely have to drink it again.

Genmaicha. I love it but there either something off with how I am brewing my tea or something wrong with me…. or maybe its this tea. I’m not getting that beautiful roasty flavor like I usually do. I found no puffed rice in mine either. Perhaps I will come back to this when my cold is completely gone and taste something new.

Having this as I type. I actually sat in Zen Tea (Shamble, Ga) today and had this and fell in love with it. Bought a couple ounces and am drinking it at home. Im new to pu’ehr and this is phenomenal to me. Caramel and butterscotch flavors come through really well! Very nice mouth feel with a buttery butterscotch finish! The smell is outrageous! I will forever have this in my stash!

Huh. This is not what I expected, thought it might be that this tea has not aged well. I have no idea how old it is.

I’m getting a slight fruity flavour that’s kind of berryish, but not any really distinct fruits, and then a note that’s creamy and makes me think white chocolate. It’s interesting, but not great.

This smells gorgeous though honestly I would say it was more creamy berry than pomegranate. Still I adore creamy berry and if anything I prefer it this way. It’s sweet and light but thick enough to linger pleasantly in my nostrils.

Once steeped it does gain a slight sour berry smell (though still dominantly creamy berry) and in a way it does smell like pomegranate. Flavour is a little sour with a dry, with a floral yet somewhat earthen notes among a sweet, and delicate berry flavour. Not creamy as the scent suggests but nice anyway. Perhaps still not pomegranate but I am truly loving the berry.

A re-steep reveals less sour notes and more berry. Perfect! Only issue now is the dryness as it’s not the best quality white tea base, but it’s easy enough to get past. My husband said it tastes like weak marzipan and in a strange way it does. So like a mild marzipan, sour berry, dry nut like tea. Perhaps not a favourite but certainly one I intend to try cold steeped :)

Queued post, written April 27th 2014

I snatched this out of the EU TTB round 2. I think. It sounded right up my alley with the caramel, and I’ve been looking forward to trying it. Tonight the time had come and I’m having it as my before bed beverage.

I did a bit of a sniffle when I poured the water on the leaves and it smelled very caramel-y then. Not super-much like chocolate, but I did pick up some slightly spicy notes of what I believe must be the base. I haven’t got much experience with honey bush. I’ve had before a number of times, but it’s been years since I’ve had it unflavoured. Still though, it was a note that struck me as honey bush. It’s quite recognisable.

The one thing I do remember from when I had it unflavoured years ago was that I could see why it’s called honey bush and that it had a distinctive natural taste of honey. That part of the base certainly comes through here as well, followed by a smidge of spice.

I can taste the caramel as well, probably enhanced by the honey notes (and vice versa), then the smidge of spice and finally a bit of a chocolate-y aftertaste.

This is not quite as rich as I had hoped, having expected something akin to liquid toffee, but it comes close enough that I am happy. I’m glad I stole this. It’s very good.

Another sipdown. Why have I been neglecting jasmine?

The unfurling of the dragon pearls from this Jasmine green tea from Zen Tea was a joy to behold! The leaves are whole, and they just kept unraveling, until at last each pearl (I used 10) was completely unrolled and fully extended. In fact, the leaves are so long that I was able to fish them out, rather than using a sieve to remove them.

The liquor is pale greenish yellow, and mixed in with the green tea leaves were full-on jasmine petals. A very nice tea—the flavor is lightly floral but also slightly sweet from the green leaves. I am looking forward to the second steep!

Hm. Glad I tried it (I most definitely was curious) however this is far from a must-have for me too. It’s roasty and sweet, almost like a vanilla marzipan, however it’s just too… I dunno. Green? Tart? Off? Dunno. Something is just not my style.

Thanks to Dinosara for sharing this with me!

This sample was from Dexter3657. I had this yesterday and really enjoyed it. Very roasty toasty flavour and the caffeine was light compared to other genmaichas I’ve had. Probably because there’s a good amount of rice compared to sencha in the mix. I don’t know if this is the right tea I’m leaving my review under. It certainly seems to fit the description but there’s no previous reviews on it….

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – May 2024 Tea #6 – A floral green

Another jasmine tea, this time GREEN.  Got to love these little pearls, even though I oversteeped both times.  Still quite good.   Ancient, yet very fragrant.  I would say 90% of my teas probably have 2-3 teaspoons left… but this isn’t a sipdown quite yet… happy weekend everyone!

Thank you DigniTea for sending some of these precious pearls! I usually love Zen (I actually just placed a smaller order yesterday because they have the best sales…and because I was sleepordering. Whoops. Also, the book I’m reading at the moment ‘The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing’ is fantastic. ) Zen suggests one teaspoon at 176-195 degrees for 2 1/2 minutes.

Steep #1 // 25 mins after boiling // 2 1/2 min steep
Oh I feel like I’ve had this exact tea before somehow but I love this! (They might be Ovation’s pearls… I’ll have to try them again soon.) The jasmine is so sweet it is on the verge of tasting like bubblegum to me. I remember a jasmine tea that did this before. The jasmine takes front and center, even though it doesn’t seem like a strong jasmine to me, more sweet than floral – the green tea itself stays in the background. It’s very nice!

Steep #2 // 20 min after boiling // 3 min
This cup was still delicious but it had a slight tinge of the overbrewed-green-tea flavor. A little brisk. Still plenty of jasmine flavor though. If you’re looking for jasmine pearls, these are those. Tea tea tea. Tea.

I really hate the new steepster look. I had not written a taste note using it yet but “unavailable”? Offputting and anyway, considering where my part of the world is, most of everything would be unavailable to me on a internet setting anyway.

Recommend this tea? WTF. I have no idea, I might recommend it to some people, depending on what they were looking for.

This is a tea from the euro box prepared by KittyLovestea, thank you so much! I am always on the look out for night tisanes with some punch and this was my first pick of that travelling box. In all a pleasant drink but got some issues with it. The most basic might be that I like, love rooibos (good rooibos. There is a difference between good rooibos base and bad rooibos, trust me), and honeybush seems kinda of wimpy next to my usual rooibos. This might make honeybush a much better choice for people who actively dislike rooibos, though.

The other problem was while this smelled intensely and tasted nicely of caramel and chocolate it was also a sort of artificial candy bar caramel and chocolate scent and taste. Just stroke me as artificial and a bit cloying. Though perhaps that sounds too harsh, a pleasant drink, not just infatuation or staple material.