Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Canton Tea Co.
Product Description:
An excellent loose cooked puerh made by a small artisan producer on China’s Yunnan/Vietnam border. The large twisted leaves are bright golden brown and release a clean, satisfying liquor with a good balance of wood and fruit notes.
Taster’s Review:
This is an incredibly smooth Puerh!
There is a strong earthy undertone to this tea, but it doesn’t smell as strong as it tastes, which is the opposite from my past Puerh tasting experiences. Usually, the smell is much more earthy than the taste.
As I continue to taste, a very pleasant sweetness presents itself. It is caramel-like in flavor, and is harmonious with the earthy flavor. I also taste oak and apple. This puerh has a lot of complexity, and isn’t as heavy in taste as I thought it would be, although the liquor is quite thick to the palate and reminds me a bit of the mouthfeel I’d experience with a green Oolong. There are even buttery notes to this – browned butter – although it lacks the vegetative taste of a green Oolong.
This is a really enjoyable Puerh. I do think my palate has finally developed a taste for this stuff! Puerh is still not something I’d imagine myself wanting to sip on a daily basis, but I do quite enjoy it on occasion.
Cheers!
Darjeeling 2nd Flush (Margaret’s Hope Silver Moon) from Canton Tea Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black Darjeeling
Where to buy: Canton Tea Co.
Product Description:
We are delighted to include this as one of our first examples of top grade Indian tea. It is a magnificent high grown Darjeeling from Margaret’s Hope, a tea garden that’s known and loved the world over. The long twisty leaves are a delightful mix of chocolate and copper browns with an abundance of silvery tips. It produces a bright gold liquor with a malty aroma, a well rounded flavour and a sweet, fruity aftertaste. This fresh, brisk tea denotes a well-produced, high grade Darjeeling. We only have a few kilos and then there is no more available – anywhere.
Taster’s Review:
I love Canton Tea Company! Every time I have one of their amazing teas, I become more impressed by them. Quite simply, they carry some of the very best teas available!
This Second Flush Darjeeling is a perfect example of what I mean. Produced in the Margaret’s Hope tea garden, this Darjeeling is so delicious! To say that this Darjeeling is different would be an understatement. First of all, we have the dry leaves which are quite long and elegant in appearance. Most Darjeeling teas tend to be chopped rather small. But not this one.
The brewed liquor possesses a light yet pleasing fragrance. It smells fresh with notes of fruit and distant hints of flower. Quite lovely. But the most remarkable thing about this tea is the flavor. It is one of the very best Darjeeling teas I’ve yet to taste – and I’ve tasted quite a few.
There is a malty overtone to the cup – which is a flavor that I don’t usually get from Darjeeling tea, but I’m tasting it now. It’s a rather remarkable surprise, indeed!
The taste is clean and crisp and there is very little astringency to this particular Darjeeling (another nice surprise, as I usually find Darjeeling tea to have a bit more astringency than this). There is a sweet undertone to this that is honey-like in flavor. Melded with the honey-like tones is a delicious fruit flavor that tastes a bit like grapes.
The second infusion is just as delicious as the first. It doesn’t have the same malty note that I got in the first infusion. Instead, I’m getting a stronger taste from the honey tones as well as a more pronounced fruity flavor – this time I can taste hints of currant and even a little bit of crisp apple!
Overall, the flavor is a complex, vibrant cup that I am really enjoying. I recommend this highly to all Darjeeling enthusiasts… I may have just found the ULTIMATE when it comes to Darjeeling!
Jasmine Silver Needle from Canton Tea Company
Tea Type: White Tea
Where To Buy: Canton Tea
Product Description:
Entirely hand-made from Fuding Da Bai Hao tips and sun dried, this delicious silver needle white tea is a high quality Yin Zhen with the characteristic white hairs on a pale green leaf. This high quality Silver Needle white tea has been infused only with the freshest hand-picked jasmine blossoms. Unlike many Jasmine teas this is an authentic infusion made by scattering the Jasmine flowers over the tea buds over several nights so the buds absorb the naturally sweet, heady scent of the jasmine.
The liquor is light and bright and the taste is soft and mellow with the notes of Jasmine lifting the flavour and leaving a long and pleasant aftertaste.
Brewing tip : The Chinese brew this skillfully made tea very lightly so a serving of just 2 grams will be enough to give a delicious infusion. Brew at 75c and infuse at least 3 time.
Tasters Review:
This Jasmine Silver Needle is just perfect for me! It’s weird because I’m not usually drawn to Jasmine nor am I a fanatic of Silver Needle but this is really great!
I don’t know what it is but this specific Jasmine Silver Needle from Canton Tea reminds me of my grandparent’s backyard in Florida…the way it smells…that is. Very airy…clean, crisp, floral. A breath of fresh air!
The taste of the tea is super crisp and clean, too! The Jasmine doesn’t have that funky old floral after taste that some Jasmines seem to have. Everything is RIGHT with this Jasmine Silver Needle…at least for me it is! This should have been called Jennifer’s Jasmine Silver Needle! (Just kidding)
Mi Lan Dan Cong Tea from Canton Tea Company
Tea Type: Oolong
Where To Buy: Canton Tea Company
Product Description:
Dan Cong is the champagne of oolongs: ripe with intense fruit and sweetness. This high grade example comes from a plantation on the lower slopes of Wu Dong Mountain, Chao Zhou. The leaves are thoroughly fermented and baked to produce a rich liquor with unique flowery and honeyed notes that can be enjoyed through multiple infusions.
Our Buyer’s notes
“This tea is more heavily baked than the Song Zhong Dan Cong to allow the tea to produce its unique honey and lychee flavours.”
Tasters Review:
Oolong’s are fun! They are vary diverse! Everything about them from the leave to the color and aroma and taste to the after taste…even the way they sit in the strainer once infused!
With this specific one – Mi Lan Dan Cong from Canton – the description says floral and honey notes and I can certainly pick up on those notes! But what I also find interesting about this tea is…the scent. The scent reminds me of being out in nature…like in the middle of the woods or even on a beach…those familiar nature-smells! Then when you taste it…it’s not really what you expect…altho even more pleasant. There is a soothing and lingering yummy aftertaste, as well!
I almost forgot how much I enjoyed this Oolong. May it never slip my mind again! Lovely!
Anji Bai Cha from Canton Tea Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Canton Tea Co.
Company Description:
Anji Bai Cha is a beautiful tea in every sense. The leaves are long, delicate and a bright vivid green, the scent has notes of citrus and nuts, and the taste is a complex mix of tangy fresh and creamy soft. The liquor is a lively pale green with the bright clarity of a classic high-grown mountain tea.
Taster’s Review:
This tea was also noted as a white tea on the Canton Tea Co. website, although it is found listed as a green tea. Despite this minor confusion, I can see how it might be considered either a white tea or a green tea, because it does have qualities of both types of tea.
The liquor brews up so light in color, so in that respect it reminds me of a white tea. It also has a relatively delicate flavor which is also quite characteristic of a white tea.
However, the color of the leaves are so vibrant and green (they look like blades of grass!) with no real indication of the silvery color that is like other white teas. Also the flavor is much more in line with a green tea – it has a pleasant vegetative flavor that is not overly grassy. It tastes more like steamed broccoli than it does grass.
There is also a very delicious, juicy fruit note to this tea that is reminiscent of sweet apples. The crispness in the tea enhances this taste beautifully! It tastes very much like a high quality green tea to me.
Yes, I like this one very much… call it a white tea, call it a green tea… I call it GOOD tea!