240 Tasting Notes

85

More new stuff from Red Blossom!

I’ll be honest, I don’t drink white teas very often, and thusly don’t know much about them. I prefer the bigger, more robust Oolongs, Pu-erhs and black teas.

But I do like to change things up now and then, and I always like to try new things. So, here is Red Blossom’s Organic Bai Mu Dan.

I used about 3 tablespoons in 32 ounces of 180 degree water for 1:30, after rising, of course. Just what the directions on Red Blossom’s website said.

The color is a nice, clear, crisp, darkish golden yellow, a bit darker than straw colored. A little darker than I thought it would be.

The aroma is nice and woodsy, with hints of dried fruit and nuts. The taste has all of those features, in a beautifully well balanced delivery. It has a super light, crisp and clean mouth feel, leading and adding to the light dried fruit taste on top of the woodsy white tea base.

This is a great, super simple, very well balanced, uber drinkable white tea. Good stuff!

-E

Flavors: Almond, Apricot, Dried Fruit, Nuts, Wood

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 1 min, 30 sec 9 tsp 32 OZ / 946 ML

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85

This is a great, solid Pu-erh. Nothing special, nothing extra, just big, bold, beautiful taste.

Dark, velvety redish brown in color, matching the aroma of sweet, thick malt. The taste is right there as well, the malt is up front and present, followed closely behind by the taste of fresh wet Earth. Overall nice and sweet while still staying think and almost creamy with a dry, sweet finish.

Everything I want in a straight up, good Pu-erh tea.

-E

Flavors: Malt, Sweet, Wet Earth

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec 9 tsp 32 OZ / 946 ML

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87

Second steeping of these leaves. Still love it, but I’ve got a good tip:

Don’t overdo it with the amount of leaves. I used what I thought was the recommended amount in the first steeping, as Red Blossom recommended slightly more leaves than the average Oolong brew, before realizing just how tightly rolled the leaves were. When they got wet and expanded, they filled my teapot. Wow, they REALLY expand!

Today I removed about half of the leaves, put them in my backup teapot to save for later, and tried brewing with a lesser amount.

Same big, bold, uber smooth but still thick buttery feel, and the straw and grass undertones were still present and accounted for.

Love this tea!

-E

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 7 tsp 32 OZ / 946 ML

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87

Finally got a new order in to Red Blossom, and this is the first grab of that order.

For an Oolong, this one is pretty light in flavor, really more towards a thick and tasty green then anything darker. It has a crisp and clear straw color to it, a nice see through yellow.

The taste and smell are full of big, beautiful butter. The taste as well. Crisp, clean, finishes super smooth. The thick, smooth buttery feel and taste are what makes this tea click, but not so overwhelming that the underlying hint of grass and straw don’t get to shine as well.

Red Blossom says this season’s Alishan harvest was plagued by rain and heat, so the quantity was rather low, but “skilled craftsmanship turned that small amount into an exceptional wonderful tea.” Yup, I completely agree. They really nailed it finding this one, I hope they have it for a while!

A tip: These leaves are rolled pretty tight. Red Blossom recommends using slightly more leaves than normal in the mix, which I did, but then realized how tight they were rolled when they expanded. The next time I brew this, I’ll use about 2/3 as much.

Flavors: Butter, Grass, Smooth, Straw

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 11 tsp 32 OZ / 946 ML

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85

I promised myself I would finish all the old tea sitting on my shelf before buying new. It takes me a while to go through even a small tea purchase, as even though I drink tea every morning and many evenings, I have gotten good at making them last through multiple steepings. I even pull White and Green teas through 3 to 4 steepings. And Oolong and Pu-erh? As many as they still have flavor.

That being said, I bought 4 ounces of this Lapsang Souchong over a year ago and am just now getting to the end of it.

Red Blossom has two ways to brew it. The first is a nice light tea; less leaves, lower water temperature and shorter steeping time. I have been doing it that way for a while, but decided to finish with a bang, so I went for the full flavor, in your face version, more like a traditional Black Tea brew.

3 tablespoons of leaves in my 32 ounce Bodum Assam, and after rinsing them I poured boiling water over them and let them steep for 3 minutes.

The end product is a beautiful dark reddish brown, almost velvety in color. The aroma fills the room with a dark, thick, juicy, ultra smoky scent.

And then there is the taste. I love the light style of brewing this tea, don’t get me wrong,. But sometimes you just need a tea to take you out back and kick the ever loving shit out of you.

This does that.

And I love it.

-E

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 10 tsp 32 OZ / 946 ML

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91

Well, there it goes. This was one of my favorite Pu-erhs, and now it’s gone. Not only did I finish my stash last night, but it is no longer on Red Blossom’s website. I can only assume that means it’s no longer with us. I’ll just have to see how many steepings I can get through. Last night’s leaves are still in my Death Star infuser, and they will stay there for as long as possible.

This was such a great tea. Strong Earthy flavors, nice dry, clean finish, just an all around great tea. I will miss it. Guess it’s time to reload my stock of Pu-erhs in hopes of finding another gem like this.

-E

Flavors: Drying, Earth

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 0 sec 3 tsp 18 OZ / 532 ML

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60
drank Jade Citrus Mint by Teavana
240 tasting notes

Interesting.

This is the 4th and final sampling from the Teavana Green Tea Essentials box set. And yeah, it’s… Interesting.

I’m a big fan of mint in good green tea. I have gone so far as to dry my own fresh mint leaves and add them to my favorite green tea so as to control the amount of each in my brew. I LOVE green tea with a hint of mint. Or even green tea with a lot of mint. But what about mint tea with a supposed but non existent green tea base?

This, yeah. The cool, refreshing taste of spearmint overwhelms the rest of the flavors in this tea. The citrus flavor is provided by lemongrass and lemon verbena, but you hardly get even a hint of it outside the aroma. Which is quite nice.

And that feel…. The tongue feel was more like cough medicine, or some sort of thick, creamy, dense, cool, syrup wrapping my tongue in a spearmint headlock.

I used 3 tablespoons of leaves in my 32 ounce Bodum Assam. After rinsing, I poured 180 degree water over the leaves and let them steep for 2 minutes. I will try a shorter time next time to see if that will bring out some of the others flavors.

The aroma was very promising, as it was clearly a green tea with lemon and spearmint flavors. I just wish the taste matched.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 0 sec 9 tsp 32 OZ / 946 ML

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78

Alright here we go. Sampling number 3 of 4 from Teavana’s Green tea Essentials box set. Jasmine is one of my favorite blends, one of the few blends I appreciate to the point of calling it “good and real tea”, so let’s see how Teavana’s version stacks up.

Using 2 tablespoons of pearls, after rinsing I poured 32 ounces of 175 degree water and let it all steep for 3 minutes, the recommended time on the box.

The color is a really nice, semi clear, darkish straw yellow., with an almost orange tint.

The fist smell that hit my nose was a pleasant surprise. The first two offerings from this set lacked a bit in the aroma category, but this one is different. The classic Jasmine scent is right up front, crisp and clean as day,but I still get a strong sense of a really good green tea base. The straw/hay/grass scent is still there with the hint of butter, and the Jasmine gets to set sail over the top of all of them.

The taste gives a little more liberties to the Jasmine, while the green tea base is not as prominent as in the scent. The Jasmine is definitely the defining aspect of this brew, that sweet floral taste takes over above everything else.

I would like to have a bit more of the Green Tea base in the taste, the Jasmine sweetness is nearly overwhelming, but not so much as to turn me off. This is still a great Jasmine Tea.

-E

Flavors: Floral, Flowers, Jasmine, Smooth, Sweet

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec 6 tsp 32 OZ / 946 ML

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75
drank Gyokuro Imperial by Teavana
240 tasting notes

Alright, Green Tea #2 from Teavana’s Green Tea Essentials box set. Let’s see:

First: I used 2 tablespoons of leaves in my 32 ounce Bodum Assam teapot. After rinsing (every time!) I poured 180 degree water over the leaves and let them steep for 1 minute.

I was a little worried when I first opened the packet and saw the leaf quality. Lots of very small pieces and dust. The rinse was, well, it took a bit. The small leaves and dust immediately clogged up the holes in the tea diffuser, and I had to wait for it to drain through.

Fannings in a Teavana offering?

OK, I went with it anyway. When I finally managed to get all 32 ounces of water into the teapot and it drained through and evened out, the water color was a nice straw colored yellowish, somewhat foggy and translucent.

The smell, again much like the first sampling I had from this box set, was nice and clean, crisp, with hints of butter, wet grass, straw, and Earth. It could have had a little more presence, but it was good nonetheless.

The taste:

The initial tongue feel and taste has a bit of bitterness to it. The straw and grass taste hits you next, those two flavors being so dominant I did not sense any butter, and in the end you are left with a slightly bitter, almost tangy aftertaste.

Not a bad tea we have here. I would certainly buy this again in the future. Not the best green I have had, but certainly miles ahead of anything I have bought in a box from a grocery store.

Miles.

Ahead.

-E

Flavors: Butter, Grass, Hay, Straw

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 1 min, 0 sec 6 tsp 32 OZ / 946 ML

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73

I received Teavana’s Green tea Essentials gift box for Christmas, adn this is the first one I am trying. I’d never been to a Teavana before, or had anything of theirs. They always seemed like a shopping mall version of a quality tea store. I had only seen their locations in places I hate going, the mall, Sanata Row, etc, so I always assumed they would be pretentious and overpriced for a product slightly better then boxed store bought tea bags.

I hope I’m wrong, of course. Let’s find out:

They recommend 1 teaspoon per 8 ounces of water, so that would mean 4 teaspoons in my 32 ounce Bodum Assam. I like a little bigger tea, so I put a full 2 tablespoons, which is about 6 teaspoons. Ish. I rinsed the leaves and then tumbled 175 degree water over the leaves, letting them steep for 1 minutes.

Here we go:

The color is a nice light, clear yellow. Straw colored, if you will. The scent is very light, with hints of straw, wet grass, earth and butter. The standards for good green teas.

I’ll be honest, the smell was a little lacking, and that had me worried on the taste. But to my surprise, the taste is full of wet grass and straw with hints of butter. They say it has an initial taste smokey taste, I’m not really getting much of that. But the grass, straw, and butter taste that is there is wonderful.

This is a great green tea. It’s going to be great on damp Spring mornings, waiting for the Sun to pop out so I can get out on the bike.

So, I was wrong, Teavana puts out a great product. But I still don’t like their stores.

Flavors: Butter, Grass, Straw

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 0 sec 6 tsp 32 OZ / 946 ML

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