Van Dyke

This tea is so unique. I love how the flavor of the hops compliments the black tea base, rather than simply overpowering it. Yummy and complex – a winning combo!

Here’s Hoping Teabox – Round Six – Tea #22
Another tea shop I’ve never tried and quite a unique blend! The blend looks like it has insect wings! I think those are hops though? There are also juniper berries. The flavors just meld together to create it’s own flavor. It’s fun when a tea does that. I can’t really pick apart the hops or the juniper. But the black tea is one of those ancient leaf types, that have that molasses, honey flavor (or the roman nougat candy flavor that I compare these types to.) The second steep at just boiled and steeped for five minutes doesn’t overdo the flavor at all. I hope someone taking part in the teabox enjoys the last serving of this one!

I picked up an ounce of this Van Dyke along with a couple other blends from these guys. This is the second time I’m buying from Soleil Teas and I only have great things to say about them so far. I just love how unique their blends are! In fact they don’t seem to carry any typical flavored teas.

I really didn’t know what to expect when I bought this Van Dyke. First whiff of the dried leaves was a tranquil journey through the woods. I used 2 heaping teaspoons with 10 oz of water in my french press and brewed for 1 minute. The scent was so refreshing. It was mossy, foresty , woodsy… The best part is that it tasted as promising as it smelled. I think the high quality black tea base (Fujian Noir ?) made a huge difference. The cup was smooth with a tad of fruitiness and lots of malt. Reminds me of gin almost. I give this tea an A+!

This tea reminds me a lot of Ailaoshan Black by WP. It’s a bitter thinner and less malty and chocolatey, but very similar. I have enjoyed it so far.

EDIT: Having this one again today. I tasted more of the woodsy elderberry flavor when I steeped it for only 3 instead of 5-7 like I had. Drinking the third steep currently and I’m picking up some nice caramel tones.

Before I dive into the actual steeping experience I just want to give Soleil Tea a big THANK YOU for the excellent customer service. I’ve had Amazon packages missing when I sent things to my apartment before and my sample order from Soleil was no exception. I know it’s not their fault that I didn’t get my tea but I sent them an email to let them know that I didn’t receive the shipment despite the tracking info says that my package has been delivered 4 days ago. I was so surprised that I received a reply from Soleil within hours and they told me not to worry coz they would send me another box right away with no extra charge whatsoever.

What amazed me even more was that they even threw in extra samples of their vanilla black, Casablanca, and another sample of their TKY! Soleil Tea you’ve made my day :D

Now let’s come back to Van Dyke. An airy and almost masculine fragrance enveloped me when I first opened the bag. It reminds me of all the hikes I go on with my hubby. I carefully measured out 2 tsp (picked out about 8 petals of hops since I love the hoppiness of beer but most definitely didn’t want a bitter cup). Since the tea base was a black tea I wasn’t the most concerned with temperature and poured in 8oz of boiling water into my handcrafted ceramic mug. I was planning to steep it for a minute but forgot and let it steeped for about 2 minutes instead.

Van Dyke came out robust but not astringent or bitter at all. It was impressionable. Something unique with its own character. I can’t compare this to other blends I’ve had since I never had anything close to this tea before. Definitely getting more once I finish the sample!

First, thank you to Soleil Tea for making the samples available.

Upon opening the package, I am most strongly reminded of a Christmas tree. Not totally on board with drinking evergreen. I’m not sure what I expected but that wasn’t it. :)

After steeping, I still smell evergreen but with some sweeter cocoa notes in the background.

Tasting gives me primarily sap and evergreen – resinous is a good word for it. I get faint floral and cocoa notes and I’m not sure I’d know if I was tasting hops or not. I see others saying this is a deep tea. I’m guessing maybe I underleafed or understeeped because I get a very light tea.

I have enough to try again and I will. :) For now, rating is based on this steeping. It’s an interesting blend but not necessarily one that is for me, I think.

Okay, so, I don’t typically drink flavored teas. The closest I’ve gotten to flavored tea in the last five years is genmaicha and an experiment I conducted on creating my own Earl Grey. When I read the offer for a sample of this from Soleil though I was intrigued. Hops and juniper berries? These aren’t your typical flavoring components, nothing sweet, floral, or fruity, at least not typical for the market today. This might be something I could get behind.

The sample came quickly and was generous at 14g. Now a bit of disclosure… I used to drink entirely too much alcohol. Even that is probably an understatement, but I haven’t had a drink in more than 6 years. When I opened the bag the strong smell of juniper and hops came over me and suddenly I realized why I must, at least subconsciously, have been drawn to this blend. Juniper is the primary ingredient in gin and hops, well you know what hops are used for. I had somehow completely missed the connection. Now I don’t want to give the impression that this is a bad thing. The smell was fresh and wonderful, like walking through the woods, and I always did enjoy my gin.

The base tea for this blend is delicious, lots of cocoa, which I love. Once brewed the juniper was very mild but it’s presence compliments the base very well. I couldn’t make out much of the hop petals, although the bitterness I expected they would impart may have just blended in with the natural bitterness of the base. Overall this was a delicious tea. I am glad to have had an opportunity to try it and to find a blend that I really enjoy. I hope more blends like this come out in the future. Thank you Soleil for the sample!

I went ahead and ordered the sample of this that Soreli tea was offering. I was a little taken aback by the amount of packaging for the small sample, but the tea did arrive unbroken.

The base of this tea is my absolute favorite blend of flavors. I suspect there is at least a little bit of unsmoked lapsong souchong in here. It is deep dark and full of that awesome cocoa flavor I LOVE. As for the addition of bitters and juniper? I am not sure I am picking out these notes. I mostly just get the base tea. I will keep experimenting with this one. I brewed this at home today and sometimes when I brew tea at work I get an entirely different animal.

The smell of this loose tea is fabulous! Fresh, woodsy, trees, juniper, walking in a forest, really unique. I loved this tea!! Really fresh, clean, outdoorsy. There were hand-rolled juniper berries and hop petals in the bag. I was carefully with my steeping time not wanting it too astringent or bitter tasting due to the addition of the hop petals. This was sample. I’m ordering more with the 20% discount they gave me with my order!