This isn’t a review but an advertisement (sorry guys!) No, we don’t usually advertise here on this site – this is an anomaly – but because one of the founding SororiTea Sisters is now the Mad Tea Artist behind 52Teas, she gets the privilege of deviating from the norm.
And 52Teas has a Holiday Pre-Sale going on right now on Kickstarter! This isn’t a typical “fundraising” Kickstarter campaign, instead, this is a chance for you to get some Christmas shopping done early while it helps us keep things just a little more organized by keeping our pre-sales separate from our day-to-day sales activity.
52Teas is offering 5 unique, limited edition teas for this promotion – these teas will be available only during the season and once they’re sold out, they won’t be reblended until next Christmas!
Here’s the specs on those five VITs (Very Important Teas):
- Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire – This is a special blend of black teas with a hint of Lapsang Souchong to give it that smoky touch that you’d experience from an open fire. Flavored with chestnut and caramel and just a hint of spice to give it that winter-y kind of appeal.
- Gingerbread Houjicha – I love the flavor of gingerbread and I think that the roasty-toasty, nutty flavor of houjicha would offer a delightful base to these flavors.
- Eggnog Chai – A Chai blend (black tea with a touch of honeybush) flavored with notes of custard-y eggnog with an extra dash of nutmeg to enliven the cup. This would make a great latte to serve Santa on Christmas Eve!
- Cranberry Orange Cider – A blend of red and green rooibos that’s been flavored with cranberry, orange and apple with a medley of holiday spices.
- Peppermint Marshmallow Melting in Hot Chocolate – For this blend, I chose a special black tea blend (crafted with teas from our friends at Verdant Tea) for the base that has a rich, natural cacao flavor with hints of malt. Peppermint, marshmallow and even more chocolate-y flavor to create a deliciously delightful cuppa.
YUM! So please take a moment to visit the 52Teas Kickstarter Holiday Pre-Sale and get some of that early Christmas shopping done early! The campaign closes on October 27th so your card won’t be charged until that date, and the teas will be shipped in plenty of time for gift giving!
Thanks for taking a moment to read this . . . now let’s get back to the reviews!
Mangnuo Cane Tea Raw Pu-erh (Ancient Tree Early Spring 2014) from Wymm Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Wymm Tea
Tea Description:
This is Wymm’s signature tea. It is a sheng pu-erh that brews bright golden with a rich and sweet flavour, and with the aroma of fresh-cut grass in the morning. For the initial 6 steeps, there is a pronounce bitter taste that lingers in back of the tongue with hints of astringency, which are slowly replaced with a bold honey aftertaste. The liquor is heady because of the ultra concentrated nutrients in this tea. Each serving of this tea can be steeped up to 20 times.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Good stuff! This Mangnuo Cane Tea Raw Pu-erh (Ancient Tree Early Spring 2014) from Wymm Tea is really nice.
I’m only on my first cup at the moment, but I’m really enjoying the strong sugary notes to this cup. I taste subtle notes of grass and a light astringency. It has a pleasant, light flavor overall, with the most forward notes tasting sweet – like something in between a sugary molasses and honey.
My second infusion was even nicer than the first. The sweet notes seem to be even stronger. I’m picking up on some delicate floral notes. The astringency is still there and it seems to be developing. There is a distinct dry note toward the finish. Vegetal notes are more defined now too, with a slight bitterness toward the finish. Not an off-putting bitterness, but more of a savory bitterness to contrast with the sugary sweet notes.
My third infusion was very much like the second. The fourth infusion was my favorite – the flavors became smoother and I found the astringency starting to wane. It wasn’t quite as sweet, but there was a nice balance between sweet, hints of bitter and light grassy tones. It was really quite pleasant.
The fifth infusion was pleasantly mellow. Sweet and refreshing taste. Hints of grass but very little bitterness. Just smooth, mellow sweetness. Later infusions began to pick up on the astringency again and since I’m not a big fan of the astringency, especially with such a mellow tea, I decided to stop with seven infusions.
Overall, a very pleasant pu-erh. I liked that it didn’t have a strong, earthy character nor was I experiencing a briny or fishy sort of flavor. Just a really pleasant vegetal note and some really remarkable sweet tones. It’s quite nice.
First Flush Long Jing Green Tea from Teasenz
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teasenz
Tea Description:
A first flush Longjing tea picked in early spring. An exceptional quality rarely seen outside of China.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Nice! This is an exceptionally fresh-tasting Longjing! I’m not surprised, of course, because I can’t recall being disappointed by any of the teas that I’ve tried thus far from Teasenz! This company is one that is committed to offering the very finest (and freshest!) teas. I like that in a tea company.
And I’m finding myself really appreciating the freshness and flavor of this first flush Long Jing (aka Dragon Well). It’s sweet and smooth and delicious. Not a trace of bitterness and a very low astringency level.
This Dragon Well has a light vegetal tone and tastes more of sweet butter with nutty tones than it tastes grassy or vegetative. I also taste notes of fruit and flower in the distance.
The sip starts out sweet, reminiscent of the nutty flavor you might experience with a browned butter. The nutty flavor has a light, toasted taste to it. About mid-sip, I start to pick up on hints of fruit and very delicate whispers of flower in the distance. More sweetness! The sip ends smooth with a slight dry sensation – a very, very slight dry astringency here. If I wasn’t focused in on the sip and really concentrating on everything I’m picking up on … this astringency is so low that it would have escaped my notice.
I love how this tea washes the palate with sweetness with every sip. It’s so enjoyable. It is more sweet than it is savory or brothy, this isn’t one of those “nourishing” type of teas, this is one to drink for the sheer celebration of a superbly beautiful and satisfyingly sweet green tea.
Another AMAZING tea from Teasenz!
Daughter’s Ring Early Spring Green Tea (Ming Qian Nu’er Huan) from Teasenz
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teasenz
Tea Description:
A farmer needs to work seven days, just to produce about 1.5 kg of this artisan tea, picking only the most-tender leaves from large-leaf tea trees in Simao, Yunnan. Afterwards, each ring is carefully hand-rolled piece by piece, requiring patience and mastery of advanced tea processing skills. A pure organic and luxury green tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Beautiful! These leaves are so amazingly graceful! They are rolled in perfect little rings, and the leaves feel soft and fluffy as they’re still covered with their downy fuzz.
They slowly unfurl in hot water, and it’s fun to watch them do their thing as they brew. I highly recommend steeping these in something that you can watch the brewing process. I realize that the website recommends a ceramic teapot for brewing, but I brewed this in my gaiwan so that I could watch the tender leaves do their graceful dance as they gently infused the hot liquid.
The cup that sits before me now is the results of the first two infusions, and this tea is delicious. It is delicately fragrant. The flavor is lightly vegetal with notes of butter and nutty tones, reminiscent of a nutty browned butter. It isn’t bitter, grassy or overly astringent.
There is a subtle floral note to the cup that seems to gradually build, and is especially noticeable in the aftertaste. The notes on the website suggest a jasmine note, but, I don’t know that I’m tasting jasmine. It is a very gentle flowery note that melds seamlessly with the other flavors of the cup.
This is a really remarkable green tea from Teasenz: I love that it’s organic, I love that it offers several delicious infusions (I got two cups of tea out of one measurement of leaves, infusing the leaves for a total of four times), and quite simply, I love this tea! Then again, I’ve been very impressed with all the teas that I’ve tried from this company! This is one company that you should put at the top of your shopping list!