Tea Type: Black Tea
Where To Buy: Canton Tea Company
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.
Tasters Review:
These leaves are so fun! They have quite the personality! Long, thin, windy, twisty, brown-grey leaves. The aroma is quite memorable with a malty and almost chewy scent – moreso than any Darjeeling I have tried.
The taste is one to remember, too! Fairly bold and full but less astringent than most Darjeelings I have tried. It also leaves you with a pleasant and semi-sweet aftertaste.
I must say this is one of my favorite Darjeelings to date! Very unique and leaves me wanting more!
Pouchong from Canton Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pouchong (somewhere between a green and an Oolong)
Company Description:
Other names: Baozhong Tea, Baochong, Bao Zhong Tea
For the second year running, our exclusive Pouchong from Taiwan took a gold award at the Guild of Fine Food Great Taste Awards.
This is one of our favourite teas and completely exclusive to Canton Tea Co. Grown high on the slopes of WenShan, Taipei county, by farmer Xu and his family, this award-winning Pouchong is incredibly light and refreshing with smooth floral notes and a sweet apricot finish. The locals call it a green tea, but it is actually a very lightly oxidised oolong. The big twisted leaves produce a bright yellow/green liquor that is creamy soft and delicious.
Farmer Xu’s comments
“Every year we enter our Pouchong in the big tea competition Every year we win the top prizes!”2009 Great Taste Awards: Two Gold Stars and 2010 Great Taste Awards: One Gold Star
Taster’s Review:
This is an extremely tasty Pouchong variety. It has a light-to-medium body with a creamy texture (or mouthfeel) to it that is similar to the texture of whole milk.
The aroma of the tea is faintly vegetative with hints of floral notes. The notes of vegetable and flower translate to the brewed cup – with stronger floral flavors than the vegetative notes which linger in the background. There is even the slightest hint of a buttery flavor, not strong, but it is complementary to the vegetal note.
Particularly nice is the aftertaste – this tea imparts a delightful fruit-like taste on the tongue… the company description suggests it’s a sweet apricot flavor and I’m inclined to agree, it is quite apricot-y.
Overall the flavor of this cup is delicate, but extraordinary. I recommend brewing it in a gaiwan to extract the most you can out of these leaves, and they’re ready for quite a few infusions – I managed seven infusions from the same measurement of leaves in my gaiwan!
This is a tea that I’d recommend to fans of green tea as well as fans of Oolong tea, because it exhibits characteristics of both of these types of tea. It is a truly remarkable tea and worthy of a try!
Alishan High Mountain Oolong from Canton Tea Co
Tea Type: Oolong
Where To Buy: Canton Tea Co
Product Description:
Alishan (Mount A Li) is one of Taiwan’s most famous oolong tea-growing areas. The mountain has a rich soil and ideal climactic conditions. It is cool and moist with daily mists so the plants grow very slowly and produce tender, flavourful tea leaves and buds.
This Alishan oolong is hand-picked and hand-processed by traditional methods into rolled ‘fists’. It has a smooth, fruity, sweet taste and a pleasing bright colour. This tea has a complexity that means each brewing brings out new characteristics and flavours.
New 2010 spring season tea. This is a very good example of one of Taiwan’s most celebrated high-grown oolong teas. The fresh, clean almost creamy taste makes it an extremely refreshing and satisfying tea to enjoy at any time of day.
Our Buyer’s notes
“This tea is produced by an old friend of mine on a small tea farm in Ali Shan. He is a skilled tea maker and only uses the best leaves processed in the old-fashioned way to ensure a sweet taste.”
Tasters Review:
This has been on my “TO TRY LIST” for a long time! I tried this both ICED and HOT.
HOT is crisp and clean and truly Ali Shan! All I can think of while drinking this is beautiful and happy thoughts…it’s bright and sweet! It’s oddly…but fabulously CREAMY for an Oolong! It’s a gem of an Oolong and I just LOVE it!
COLD…it seems juicer but is still very creamy and quenches my thirst! Excellent either COLD or HOT…YUM!
Bai Lin Gong Fu Tea from Canton Tea Company
Tea Tye: Black Tea
Where To Buy: Canton Tea Company
Product Description:
One of the earliest (and best) Chinese black teas ever to be produced, Bai Lin Gong Fu is made from buds twisted into tight elegant gold-streaked curls. The liquor is reddish-brown and tastes naturally of caramel and cream so needs absolutely nothing added. This is a wonderful example of whole leaf black tea. It it is a glorious breakfast tea and so reasonably priced for a tea of this calibre, it can be an everyday affordable luxury.
Our Buyer’s notes
“The leaves of this tea have fine organgey yellow hairs, indicating the use of buds by the makers. Delightful, easy drinking black tea.”
Tasters Review:
Since Bai Lin Gong Fu black tea won the top prize of Three Star Gold Tea Expo this summer – I thought I would review this one today! I must note…only 91 products out of over 6,000 entries achieved three stars!!!!
I was lucky enough to try this tea a few months ago and then I just received a sample of it again yesterday! The tea freak that I am – I compared notes and I would LOVE to share my findings with you.
Here was my first attempt a few months ago:
This is a nice crisp taste with a caramel likeness to it. It has a mellow aftertaste is perfect for my palate! This is YUMMY Cold as well! I had 1 hot cup and 1 cold cups-worth. I Enjoyed them both. The hairy-fuzzy leaves left a little pollen-y residue to the touch but still a very neat leaf!
Now…the 2nd time I tried this was just yesterday…and here are my findings – that were much more memorable…
Right out of the package the aroma smacks you in the face!!! I like a loud tea! BUT…the smell was much different that I remember and unlike anything I have ever smelled! The smell of this reminds me of Ravioli! A bready/Tomato type smell and I just LOVE it!!!
The taste is also a little cakey but creamy!!! It’s a full and fairly bold RED – or Black tea taste – at the beginning and leads you into a lovely mellow aftertaste. The aftertaste encourages you to sip more!
I really like this! And completely understand why it won the awards!
Tie Guan Ying (Iron Buddha) from Canton Tea Company
Leaf Type: Oolong Tea
Where To Buy: Canton Tea Co
Product Description:
This classic Tie Guan Yin produces a delicious, light-coloured, medium-bodied liquor. The first infusion combines toasty, floral notes with a touch of honey and becomes more fruity with successive infusions.
The dark, lightly oxidised green leaves are rolled into small tight fists. The liquor is amber-green with a smooth, heavy texture on the tongue. The flowery and fruity profile of this tea has a touch of honey and at first releases the pleasant orchid notes – after a couple of brews it yields the soft fruitier notes and has a sweet long lasting after taste.
Tasters Review:
There are few teas that have made me say “WOW” and at the same time have FUN with my cup. This is one of those teas. The reason this tea was fun for me was because the tastes seem to change – almost like a twist here and a twirl there – maybe a tea roller-coaster of sorts…with a surprise at each turn and a rush of excitement when you realize you are having more fun that you should!
At first it has a Buttery Vegetable type smell and the taste is buttery THEN fruity and almost nutty. It has a sweet and buttery aftertaste and is VERY smooth.
As it cools a little I can taste the ever so slight bit of natural-salt-likeness…it seems to fit in quite nicely!
This tea is fun because it makes you think – there is so much more than the eye can see BUT more importantly…it’s darn-tasty!