Holy tea! Just got home from a day of touring loose leaf tea shops in my new city! I went to DAVIDsTEA, McQuarries Tea and Coffee Merchants, and Tea Desire. Overall, I think I liked the service at McQuarries the least – the sales lady seemed really impatient as I took my time browsing the aisles. In the end, I ended up buying 50g (the smallest amount I could get) of two different teas. This is one of them!
The packaging it came in (a small brown paper bag carefully folded over) has absolutely no information about how to steep this one – nothing on amount of leaf, steeping time, and water temperature. I didn’t really want to guess (even if it would have been an educated guess), so I checked their website to see if I could find any information and, thankfully, there’s some listed. Even though everything is SUPER general, it’s enough to go on and 50g of this one is enough to tinker with as well.
So, 1 1/2 tsp of tea steeped for only 1 min. I’m making my first cup by the book! Err… Website. The dry leaf smells very light and floral with berry notes, however the berry I’m smelling isn’t really distinct enough to pinpoint what kind of berry I’m smelling. Steeped, the liquor is a sort of medium yellow, although it starts off as more of a pale green.
Personally, I’ve never had Ontario Ice Wine before but my roommate Tre has & he says the dry leaf smells exactly like what he had. I think that’s a good thing, although he says he didn’t particularly enjoy the ice wine he had. Steeped, it smells less floral but I still get that unidentifiable berry smell.
First few sips and it tastes good. It tastes different than other white teas I’ve had so that must be the Ice Wine I’m tasting. Yeah, I’m personally not tasting anything floral anymore. I taste berry in the end of the sip, and a bit in the aftertaste. There is a mild astringency – but the keyword there is mild.
I don’t really want to add sugar to this cup, but I wonder if it would bring out the taste of berry or whether it would kill it. Since this cup is pleasant enough I’m going to wait to try that another time. I’d also like to try leaving the tea leaves in another minute or two longer.
EDIT: By the time I reached the bottom of my mug the tea had grown noticeably bitter, so I think I will try adding a small bit of sugar next time.
EDIT: Second steep! Followed the same steeping parameters as before, but added a level tsp of sugar to it. Still as flavourful as the first steep but I think I was right to add the sugar – it DEFINITELY brings out the berry flavour. I think I prefer the second steep more. Looking forward to what a third steep will bring out of this tea!
EDIT: Third steep of this one went to Tre. Steeped this for 2 minutes and, at Tre’s request, added 2 tablespoons of sugar to it. I snuck a few sips before I gave it to him and it just tasted like sugar water to me. I’m not sure if that’s because of how much sugar he wanted added to it or because three steeps is too many. Even though it just tasted like sugar water to me, though, he said he could taste ice wine. Interesting.
