Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Foxfire Teas
Tea Description:
This beautiful black tea from the Yunnan Province in China has a beautiful dried leaf appearance and once steeped it has a wonderful robust aroma with slight fruit notes. This tea is part of the Limited Collection, so we have a very small quantity available and once it is sold out, we may not see it again until it is next harvested.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh. My. Goodness!
This is soooo good.
Once upon a time … (Once upon a tea?) I tasted Dawn from Simple Leaf. Dawn is one of the very best teas I’ve ever had the privilege to sample, and of the pure black teas I’ve sampled, it is definitely in the top three if not at the #1 spot. Unfortunately, Simple Leaf is no longer in business. (sob) But every once in a while, I will encounter a tea that reminds me so much of that amazing experience that I had with Dawn.
This moment with High Mountain Red Tea from Foxfire Teas is one such experience.
The dry leaf is beautiful – long, curly, wiry leaves of dark chocolate brown that smell of sweet fruit, notes of chocolate and hints of caramel. And after the tea brews, that is the fragrance that surrounds my olfactory nerves when I take a deep whiff of this magical brew.
And that’s what I taste too. The flavor is sweet, rich and smooth. Well-rounded. Notes of cacao. Undertones of sweet, luscious caramel. Sweet fruit notes that are reminiscent of apple, plum and currant – but with no tartness. Just the sweet tones of those fruits! There is a pleasant … what I’m going to call “savory” quality … toward mid-sip. This “savory” quality is not bitterness, it is not sweetness, it is not tart or tangy … it’s just … smooth and robust and … well, savory.
There is no bitterness to this cup … and virtually nothing that resembles astringency. There might be the slightest twang of a tangy pucker towards the finish. But this is so slight that if you’re not paying very strict attention, you’ll miss it.
Easily one of the best cups of tea that I’ve had in a very long time – and I’ve had a lot of really, really good tea lately!
Dragon Well from Foxfire Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Foxfire Teas
Tea Description:
The most famous Chinese green tea; herbaceous with slight cocoa notes | ORGANIC
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Dragon Well tea is one of those teas that I don’t drink very often, but, when I do get one to try – I can’t help but wonder why I don’t drink it more often! I love Dragon Well, and this is a really good Dragon Well.
The answer to the above quandary is that I have a lot of tea to drink. It’s hard to be dedicated to one particular tea when one reviews tea like I do, because there are a lot of teas out there, and even after writing a couple of thousand reviews, I’ve hardly scratched the surface on all the teas out there for me to try! However, if I were not writing reviews as often as I do, and I were looking for that one special Dragon Well to keep stocked in my cupboard, this one would certainly be a contender!
Yes, it’s that good!
On Steepster, I described this Dragon Well as a “slow developing” Dragon Well. That is to say, the flavors don’t jump right out and onto the palate with the first or second sip. It takes a few sips to really notice the complexity in this cup. And even after that, I notice more flavors, the more I sip!
After the first few sips, I start to notice the vegetative tones emerging: sweet and tasting a bit like mild beans. A few sips later, and I notice a definite cocoa-ish note emerging. I don’t think I’ve ever really noticed a chocolate-y note in a Dragon Well before. By mid-cup, I notice a slight citrus-y tone emerging. This taste comes right before the tail end of the sip, and lingers into the aftertaste.
A really rich, rewarding cup of tea. I highly recommend it! Even if you’ve tried Dragon Well tea (and if you’re a tea lover … you probably have), it is definitely worthwhile to try more than one … even teas with the same name can taste different, and I think that this one is one that is worth exploring.
Earl Grey from Foxfire Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Foxfire Teas
Tea Description:
A special blend of this popular black tea; marvelous citrus aroma with a nice body | ORGANIC-FAIR TRADE
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh happy day! I just love Earl Grey!
I generally love most Earl Grey teas that I’ve tried. There have been a few rare exceptions. But I’ve definitely enjoyed more than I’ve disliked, and quite often, I find one that makes me really happy. Like this one!
The bergamot is really smooth. This is like the smooth-talking Mr. Grey. While many Earl Grey teas can have a sort of sharpness to them, this one does not. From the very first moment that the sip touches the palate, it is nothing but smooth. It is so smooth, it is almost reminiscent of an Earl Grey Creme … but without the vanilla and/or cream flavoring. It is definitely bergamot all the way, and while the bergamot is definitely tangy (as it usually is) it just doens’t taste sharp. There are no soapy notes, nothing that tastes like it’s even close to verging on perfume. Just smooth, sweet yet tangy fruit tones from the bergamot with very few of the floral tones that often accompany it.
The black tea is so rich and full-flavored. It is smooth to match the smooth quality of the bergamot. It is a delicious and robust tea, but it isn’t overwhelmingly bold – it does not need to overpower the bergamot. In fact, I find the two components to be very well matched, and they work together quite well to create a very harmonious flavor.
If you like Earl Grey, you should do yourself a favor and try this one. It’s excellence in a teacup!
Black Currant from Foxfire Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Foxfire Teas
Tea Description:
Delicious Assam black tea flavored with black currant gives this tea a nice fruity pop; super delicious iced or hot and a great mixer for cocktails
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
As it turns out, this is going to be a day for Portland teas … at least for me. I just got finished writing a review for Mt. Hood Vanilla tea from Townshend’s Tea that will appear later this evening, and now I am trying tea from another Portland company – one I’ve not yet tried but have wanted to for quite some time now: Foxfire Teas!
From the moment I opened the pouch of this tea, I couldn’t stop smelling it. The aroma is AMAZING! It smells so sweet and fruity, it brings me back in time to when my gramma had a grapevine in her backyard and she’d cook the grapes and make grape jelly. She eventually removed the grapevine and replaced it with ollaliberries, but that’s another story.
Now, as I’ve stated before, I’m not generally a big fan of grape flavored things. I don’t really care for grape juice (I mean, it’s alright, but I’d prefer other juices), and I won’t eat grape flavored ice pops or grape flavored candies. I don’t really even like grape jelly, although I did like gramma’s grape jelly, and I think that is why I am loving the fragrance of this tea so much … it smells so much like my gramma’s kitchen when she’d make grape jelly.
But of course, this is not a grape flavored tea, it is a Black Currant flavored tea. However, I’ve not eaten a lot of fresh black currants (they’re not especially easy to find, I was surprised a few weeks ago while shopping at my local Whole Foods to find them there), so I can’t really compare the scent to currants. But currants and grapes are very similar in aroma, and fermented grapes (aka wine) often taste of currants.
And I’m glad to say that this indeed does taste like black currants and not of grapes. It has a very bright, fruity flavor which is both sweet and tart, leaning a bit more toward the tart than to the sweet. It is not too tart, though, at least not for my palate, and as I tend to not like a strong tart flavor that’s a good thing.
The black tea base is an Assam, and it definitely lets you know that its there. It’s has a very powerful flavor – strong and bold! This Assam is leaning slightly toward the wine-y tasting Assam rather than the malty; however there are some delightful malty tones in there as well. Of course, the black currant flavor also lends to that wine-y taste.
I am sipping this hot, but I suspect that it would also make a delightful iced tea with its strong fruit notes. This is certainly one of the best black currant teas that I’ve tried. I love the strong, full-bodied taste of the Assam and and how nicely it melds with the flavor of the currant.
An excellent tea – and I’m very proud that it’s a local company. And even if you don’t live near Portland, you can still try this tea as they do sell their teas online. I’ve had the opportunity to converse with Katherine via email and she has such a wonderfully warm personality. I love it when I find a tea company that offers great teas and excellent customer service!