Recently I enjoyed a smoky black tea from Grey’s Tea that was a delight but not necessarily my first choice in teas. But this second selection from Grey’s Teas definitely is.
Darjeeling Castleton Second Flush is an amazing smooth rich black tea that gives you all the tea feels from the very beginning. From the moment when you open the tea to get ready to steep, you now you have an instant best friend.
Brewed with freshly boiled water and allowed to steep for four minutes, you will have yourself an amazing perfect cuppa tea! Rich smooth waves of delicious rich slightly astringent tea encases each and every sip with the most gorgeously silky finish.
Simple yet so full of flavors that all combine so well. I’ve found that this tea is one of the more satisfying teas that I have had in a while and I can’t help but sit back and really immerse myself in the cuppa as I sip away.
This tea is a true gem and one that I have greedily sipped down in a few different sessions. Extremely appreciated to have been able to enjoy this delight and excited to hear what my other Sisters have to say about this tea.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Grey’s Tea
Description
Darjeeling Castleton Second Flush 2017 is from the Castleton garden established on the foothills between Darjeeling and Siliguri by Dr Charles Graham in 1885. In 1996 it became the first Indian tea garden to be awarded the ISO 9002 certificate of quality. This renown new season Darjeeling Castleton Second flush has a dark umber leaf. It is smooth, rich and has a distinct muscatel character with a long finish. Infuse one teaspoon per cup plus one for the pot with freshly drawn, boiling water for four minutes. Drink without milk. A most rewarding experience!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Superfine Tanyang gongfu black tea from Tea Vivre . . . .
I’m learning to love unflavored teas this year, and this beautiful offering from Tea Vivre really makes my job easy! Without even opening the bag, I’m already impressed with the gaiwan tea ceremony directions and WOW! The heritage on this tea is amazing, down to the day of when and where it was harvested (April 8, 2017). The gongfu style black tea is named after where it was grown, Tanyang Village in Fujian, of South East China.
The adventure continues as I reveal Twisted ropes of gold and brown… I’ve never seen this type of tea before, it’s actually soft with some fuzzies on it. A green-thumbed friend of mine called this style of leaves “pubescent”, meaning they were just barely mature.
Still dry, they offer a light, clear, inviting scent, like fresh sweet peas in the garden. I decided to taste a leaf, (they make coffee bean snacks so it’s not that crazy to do, right??) and we are reminded of the chocolate noodles they sample out of Pikes place market.
The walnut colored brew offers a hint of honey taste though none was added. I never expected this sort of delicate leaf to be so powerful! They say the longer you brew this style, the mellower the flavor will be, which is quite the opposite of most teas I’ve had, and it’s completely true!! Now I’m curious about the actual chemistry of tannins etc… oh the rabbit holes of science we can get caught up in…
It is “zero percent bitter” and easy to drink (Hanley, R.,2017). There is a refreshing aftertaste, maybe a subtle hint of wintergreen. This tea doesn’t have much of an aftertaste but I tended to wait a while between sips because this tea was just so transcendental that I couldn’t help but daydream about it.
If ever you need to impress someone with a tea, this is the one!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black, loose leaf
Where to Buy: TeaVivre
Being the first one among Fujian’s three best Gong Fu Black Teas (Bai Lin Gong Fu, Zheng He Gong Fu, Tan Yang Gong Fu), Tan Yang Gong Fu Black Tea has tight and thin leaves, looks glossy, which could be seen from TeaVivre’s product photo. When looking at this tea, the golden pekoe is particularly eye-catching, strongly connected to its high quality. Under the effect of photosynthesis, fresh buds contain the largest amount of beneficial substances than other parts. Moreover, the traditional making method of black tea has retained the nutrition in the most volume.
Black tea is renowned with it red leaves and red liquid. The liquid of Tan Yang Gong Fu is bright red, and clean, which brings you a feeling of pureness. The flavor will vary based on different amount of teas and time of infusion. If using gai wan to brew in traditional Chinese way (Recommend Brewing Guide), you will sense the sweet and mellow flavor, and feel a quick sweet aftertaste in your throat. The aroma of Tan Yang Gong Fu will float around you for a long time.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Sakhira Estate from Yatra Tea Company. . . .
The first thing I noticed about this tea was its light, fuzzy leaves. I got really excited, because I know that this means they were plucked at JUST THE RIGHT MOMENT when the leaf is FRESHLY, FIRST FUZZY. Is this fact upon the official site for this tea? NO. It is NOT. You got that information STRAIGHT FROM ME. YOU ARE WELCOME. Now go forth and tell everyone you know about tea fuzz.
I thought, based on the tea’s fuzzy mid-green appearance, that it’d be delicate. After steeping, the water was still really light, reinforcing that perception.
Nope! This is a potent flavor! It’s a very smooth, amber sort of flavor that’s sweet and thoughtful.
Imagine a harp and a violinist playing together at a midafternoon wedding. Everyone is dressed sharply. The feeling in the air is electric. Spring is settling into summer, and the sun is out.
It’s a beautiful afternoon for them, and for you, when you give this a whirl.The spring fuzzy leaves are carrying their sunshine into your cup.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Yatra Tea Company
Description
Known worldwide as home to some of the largest mountains in the world, including Mt. Everest, Nepal is an underrated tea producing nation that has started to gain some prominence among discerning tea drinkers. Nepal is comprised of 75 districts, one of which is Ilam. Ilam is located in the Mechi Zone in the easternmost part of Nepal. It borders the Darjeeling region of India, which affords it very similar soil and climatic conditions.
Approximately 12 miles from the Ilam bazaar lies the Sakhira Garden. Named for its location (Sakhejung Hill Range) this estate is relatively young, founded in 2000 by the collective efforts of a group of small farmers. The production facilities reside at 4,000 ft. while the plantations that provide tea to the factory are perched at an altitude of 6,000 ft.
With a singular focus on harvesting only the highest quality black Orthodox teas, the produce of Sakhira is poised to give the vaunted Darjeeling teas a run for their money!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
The Energy for Word Craft – James Joyce Tea Blend by Simpson and Vail. . . .
From day to day we find ourselves taxed with work, school, and the other things that make our life worthwhile. And when we try to sit down to pursue our hobbies, may it be writing, reading, or any other creative venture we find ourselves creatively drained. We either stare at a blank page or a room that holds our craft that refuses to give us the needed inspiration to fuel our venture.
This, my friends, is where I have found myself a lot this month. Balancing school and my desire to put the story, that I have been holding on to for ages, onto paper seems to be a momentous task. But that is where tea comes in.
To be specific James Joyce’s Tea Blend by Simpson & Vail gave me the needed boost to finally put something down on paper. Now, this is tea not alike the others I have tried for this tea is very simple in nature. This cuppa is like Irish/English Breakfast and as a matter of fact, it tastes like a blend of those two. It has that perfect maltiness that I have come to love in Irish Breakfast with a little bit of the robustness that English Breakfast has to offer.
The price of this tea won’t hurt your wallet either for you can get either a 4 oz package for $6.90 whereas if you want the decorative 4 oz tin that will be about $3 extra at $9.75.
Even though this tea didn’t have anything new or different added to the blend I still appreciate it. Drinking this blend brought me back to the days when I first tried hot tea. Calling this tea simple is not negative in this case for a simple cup of tea could be the only thing you need to get you back on track.
See you for the next cuppa!
Kara
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Simpson & Vail
Description
James Joyce was born February 2, 1882 in a suburb of Dublin, Ireland. He attended a private boarding school until his father’s debts caught up with the family and he and his siblings were forced to leave. He would later attend college and, while he achieved high marks, his views never aligned with the Jesuit professors. A collection of his short stories, The Dubliners, was published in 1914 and introduced Joyce’s dense and atmospheric prose to the world. He would go on to travel Europe, spending most of his productive years in France, where Ulysses was published in 1922. Joyce’s influence continues into the 21st century where his method of conveying the complexity and chaos of random thought as a stream of consciousness is still in use.
For Joyce, tea was an expected part of life and it appears in his works as a routine part of the day. As a man of taste, he enjoyed the finer things in life and, as an article describing a meeting at his house says, “Mrs. Joyce gives us the best tea and the nicest cakes that are to be had in any house in Paris.” Our James Joyce tea blend uses a distinctly Irish mix of black teas to mimic the type of drink he and his friends would have enjoyed.
This delightfully bold blend of teas brews to a golden cup with a malty flavor and a slightly fruity aftertaste.
Ingredients: Black teas from India, Sri Lanka and Kenya.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Wild Style Black Tea from Old Ways Tea. . . .
A telltale nagging in my throat tells me a cold is underway. So I needed the toughest, most bracing tea out there.
Enter: WILD STYLE BLACK TEA.
You know, a RUGGED, BUTCH, RICH tea that’ll sharply inform my immune system HOW IT IS DONE. No mix-ins. Just the STRAIGHT-UP REAL DEAL. The sort of situation that calls for the CAPS LOCK BUTTON
This tea has a thick and smooth flavor. It’s manly, but in a calming, non-smoky way. It tastes like berries, and growth, and getting a tan. It tastes like soil in softening in preparation for spring. It tastes like a cute man in leather winking at you. It tastes like a winding car ride on perfectly paved road.
It tastes like a glorious warrior defeating a sniveling cold.
I hope.
Fingers crossed.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Old Ways Tea
Description
This wild style black tea is from high mountains above Tongmu village located in the Wuyishan Biodiversity Protection area. A strong but clean floral fragrance is present. The tea is described as wild style due to the conditions in which the trees are allowed to grow. The trees are by no means wild, they are still intentionally grown from known cultivars, but are spaced more widely and allowed to grow more how they please. They are not forced into the neat rows that make cutting more efficient.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!