Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green, Sencha
Where to Buy: Zen Tea Life
Tea Description:
Sencha is the most commonly enjoyed variety of Japanese green tea. Sencha contains more of the beneficial nutrient Catechin than other green teas, because it is grown in full sunlight, thus it becomes yellow-green in color. Sencha tastes gently astringent and smells wonderfully fresh. Sencha is harvested three or four times a year. But with each harvest, the tea becomes slightly lower in quality. This is why the first flush, or Ichiban Cha, is the best. All of our Sencha products are made exclusively from Ichiban Cha. You will certainly be delighted with the fine and generously harmonized flavor of our Sencha.
Ingredients: Sencha, Matcha, Brown Rice, Puffed Corn.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The cup steeps into a clear, nearly neon green color. Its bright and cheery, and just what the doctor ordered on a foggy dreary day!
The flavor of this tea is deliciously green, vegetal, sweet, nutty, and fresh.
As described there is a light astringency to the cup but it does not become bitter if brewed correctly.
The directions say to use 1 to 2 teaspoons so I split the difference going 1.5 teaspoons however I am feeling I could have saved some leaf and went with just one. It is a strong tasting tea, not too strong, just strong enough that you don’t need as much leaf as you could use unless you want your sencha to really punch you in the face.
There is a wonderful fresh cut grass after taste that I adore! It lingers just like beautiful clean crisp blades of summer grass from a full lush lawn.
There is a nuttiness to the tea as well which is another of my favorite flavor notes. The matcha in the tea is noticeable in flavor but does not leave matcha “dust” in the bottom of your cup. This brings me to the following: One thing that does confuse me is that on the ingredients listing it says there is puffed rice, matcha, sencha of course, and brown rice, yet in the leaf itself I see none of this so it must be somehow mixed in here perfectly so it is not detected in the dry leaf. To the naked eye it looks simply like a beautiful deep green sencha. Or the labeling on my sample may be incorrect. Regardless, I can taste the flavor notes listed on the ingredients, I just can’t see them. What the label infers to me is a genmaicha.
What one can’t be confused about however is that this particular tea, is delicious.
LiShan Oolong, Winter from The Mountain Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green Oolong
Where to Buy: The Mountain Tea Company
Tea Description:
Our Winter LiShan coats the palate with orchid, pineapple, and vanilla bean. “LiShan” means Pear Mountain and in the past, the most sought after pears came from this place. This highland climate with an altitude of more than 6600 feet above sea level produces especially superior teas. LiShan oolongs are the most fragrant, smoothest, butteriest oolongs, incredibly sweet with a taste of toasted fruit.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have only recently discovered tea from The Mountain Tea Company but I am so very glad that I have.
I have enjoyed every tea I have tried from them so far.
The aroma of this tea in dry form is amazing. Such a strong delicious scent yet so difficult to explain. There is something quite roasty and toasty about this tea yet it is a green oolong. There is a smokey aroma but that does not convey in the steeped cup.
Steeped it is fresh, grassy, vegetal, and crisp. Refreshingly delightful and just simply splendrous cold brewed!
There is such a sweet honey like flavor with a bright clear finish. The sweetness does not linger in a cloying manner but rather leaves behind the flavor of fresh cut grass.
There is a lightly floral note of orchid and some fruity notes mixed throughout the flavors on the palate and a lovely lilting vanilla note that drifts over the taste buds but dissipates quickly making me want more.
While the cup is fresh and bright there is a deep creamy mouthfeel before hand – so the initial taste is that of deeply creamy and buttery followed with the clear cleansing finish.
I know I am just not doing this tea any justice in my review but I am just so very excited to be sipping on this tea right now. I want to sit back and enjoy it yet my excitement to share information about this tea with everyone can’t wait. I just want to get it all out and written down right as the flavors and notes come dancing forward for me so that you can experience in its truest form – outside of having it for yourself. I want you to be in the moment with me while I have this spectacular tea!
I do hope to get more of this before I drink it all, and it won’t be difficult to justify as it is one of the more exquisite teas I could invest in.
As a reviewer I can drink upwards of 10 cups of tea a day, some days more, some less, and I don’t review them all. I only review those teas I would suggest to others. Be it a solid beginner tea, a tea for those who are looking only for the best, or something in the middle. Even though I may not particularly like every tea personally, due to simply perhaps not enjoying a flavor element for example, I try to be quite fair in my reviews. Regardless, this is a tea I would recommend to everyone. Beginners should use this tea as a baseline for all other teas, specifically Oolongs if you are finding you love Oolongs. For those who have been drinking tea for some time you won’t be disappointed in this tea, or The Mountain Tea Company. I certainly am not as experienced as some but thus far I have to say this is one of the most enjoyable oolongs I have had the honor of sipping.
Sometimes we just get so excited about a tea – after drinking one after another – one simply stands out above the others. As for Oolongs, I would stand behind this one hands down as supreme.
Chinese Flower from Harney & Sons
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green, Flower
Where to Buy: Harney & Sons
Tea Description:
Green Tea with Flowers and Lemon A reinvigoration of the senses. Chinese Flower, flawlessly blended of hand plucked Chinese green tea, three types of flowers, and citrus flavors, yields the most high-caliber tea experience. A synergy between tea, flower, and fruit, every part gorgeously synchronized – crisp citrus aroma that bursts and floral notes that woo, Chinese Flower grasps the sensations. It is a rare jewel in the teascape, its bold vitality spellbinding.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
What an absolutely stunning tea! So many pretty petals in this cup my first thought was it looked like potpourri! It smells divine as well and one could actually place this out on a table in a bowl and enjoy the aroma and colors of it.
The tea has a lovely lemon flavor which is tart but not sour. The floral notes seem to meld nicely enough but I do seem to feel at times – in some sips – that the floral notes are arguing about which is prettiest and going to get the most attention. Yet, somewhere between the floral chaos, and the lemon’s tart little attitude there is a sweetness that shyly peeks through and politely says a meek hello. This is the note that is worth waiting for! Then in the after taste this delightful and refreshing grassy green pokes through from the base!
This tea makes you pay attention, the more I found myself wondering if I even liked this tea at all the more I found myself taking another sip and smiling because I did enjoy it.
This tea is a lady indeed, complex, beautiful, aromatic, confusing, profound, sweet, sassy, and delightful.
I applaud Harney & Sons for using such a wonderful base for this tea as it could have easily been hidden behind all these other notes but it was not lost at all. I find that if you wait long enough between sips that the flowers dance on the grassy green flavors of the base making me feel like I am sipping this cup in a field of wildflower.
Thanks to a Steepster friend I have a pretty healthy sample of this tea here but I already want to buy a tin of it just because I want to have it in my permeant stash in its own lovely home, as this tea is deserving of it.
Its not often a floral tea catches my eye, or the favor of my taste buds, but this tea has so much more going on than just a flowery bouquet.
The after taste is what gets me the most. Absolutely not to make you think this tea is remotely perfume-y because it is not, but it does remind me of an expensive French perfume. Even if this is a Chinese floral tea. Fresh, rich, romantically floral, beautiful, sweet, tart, sexy and expensive, except Harney & Sons, in my opinion, is reasonably priced tea.
If my tea breath smells half as good as this tea tastes lingering around in my mouth then people should be oohing and aahing over me, following me around wanting to kiss me, yes I can be my own romance heroine if only in my own mind!
Oh La La!
Thé des Alizés from Le Palais des Thes
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Le Palais Des Thés
Tea Description:
A green tea enlivened by flower petals and delicately scented with pieces of white peach, kiwi and watermelon. The green tea and the juicy freshness of the fruit are wonderfully balanced. Can be drunk hot or iced.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I am not usually one for watermelon flavored things outside of watermelon itself, but this delicate tea by Le Palais des Thes has me enjoying a watermelon blend. Granted it is not just a watermelon flavored tea, there are other wonderful fruit flavors in here accompanying the watermelon, peach is one of those flavors, and I am quite partial to peach teas! Kiwi is pretty good in teas although I have not seen it used often, so this is a really nice flavor blend.
Just as in the description offered by the company, it is in fact quite a “juicy” tea. As you sip your mouth almost waters with the burst of fruit flavors.
Also the green tea base holds its own against quite a few somewhat strong flavors. The base cold easily have been overcome, but it is not. In fact it not only holds its own, but the base is the main flavor I taste, which is good because when it comes to tea, sometimes I do enjoy a tea that is overwhelming with flavor, but for the most part I want to savor the tea over any flavorings within it.
I will say that it can be difficult to pick out any one flavor in the tea between the different fruits. One would not sip this and instantly say “Watermelon!” or “Kiwi!” for example. Rather it is more like a fruit punch flavor – a tropical punch, without the cloying sugar sweetness, yet it is nicely sweet, a natural sweet.
While this is not one of my favorite stash buster teas, it is always one that is lovely to return to. It is inviting enough that I am interested in trying more teas from Le Palais des Thes, which I intend to do in the future if this is any indication of their tea quality I should be quite pleased!
Green Kukicha from The Tea Merchant
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: The Tea Merchant
Tea Description:
Our organic green kukicha is comprised of non-roasted tea twigs and leafs. Otherwise known as Senkukicha and praised for its health benefits and low caffeine content in the macrobiotic community. This tea has a fresh grassy feel with a slightly fruity taste and a crisp finish. Brews a lively green infusion and is best brewed at a low temperature.
Ingredients:
Organic Green Tea Leafs and StemsCaffeine Content: Low
Organic
Region: Japan
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This has a lovely green Kukicha base and one of my first Kukicha, actually this may have been my first Kukicha, however since have been able to sample a couple others so I can say I do like the base used in this blend. Its buttery, and slightly nutty and I am partial to buttery, nutty teas!
The initial aroma was nutty and the dry leaf is eye pleasing.
The initial taste on first sip was indeed buttery but then something shifted, this tea tasted very much of an oolong, which I also do love my oolongs!
The color of the steeped tea is quite interesting, almost a neon yellowish color that boarders on orange. It is the color of the sunrise. Quite pretty.
For such a light colored tea it actually has somewhat of a full mouth feel being nice and creamy!
As I sat with my cup and took in the aromas around me I noticed this tea also smells very much like an oolong!
The flavor however was still very vegetal, grassy and fresh, yet there was this kick to it similar to an oolong with a roast-y toast-y goodness and after taste!
It is quite rich and while I am used to using 2tsp of leaves for greens and oolongs this one may even be able to be extended in your stash by only using 1tsp but I have yet to try that.
Its a delicate tea so be sure you steep a bit lower – around 150 to 170 degrees but not over that as it will become bitter and astringent.
This is a part that is slightly annoying to me as often I do not have the time to baby my teas and just need hardy teas that you can dump into the stainer and pour some scouring water over and be done with it but fine tea does deserve far more focus and attention so be sure that when you steep this tea you have the time to treat it with respect and it will offer you a welcome cup.