Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
This tea is available from Amoda Tea.
Tea Description:
Classic green tea leaves possessing a natural honeyed sweetness blossom with an even sweeter aroma of freshly plucked jasmine.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve had a few questionable jasmine teas lately. By questionable, I mean jasmine teas that were flavored with jasmine oil instead of scented with jasmine blossoms. When a tea is flavored with jasmine oil, the result is usually not good. I’ve tasted a few flavored jasmine teas that turned out alright but for the most part, they’re just far too perfume-y for my liking.
Fortunately, this Jasmine Mist Green Tea from Sloane Tea Company was not flavored with jasmine oil. Instead, it was scented with jasmine blossoms. This is the best way to impart jasmine essence onto the tea leaf!
The dry leaf smells like jasmine and it’s a pleasantly strong fragrance. Not too overwhelming. I also noticed that there were no jasmine petals in the blend. This is a sign of a good quality jasmine tea! The aroma of the brewed tea is a gentle jasmine note with notes of fresh, light green tea.
And that’s what I’m tasting too. The jasmine note is distinct without tasting of perfume or soap. It tastes like beautiful, exotic jasmine! It doesn’t taste like perfume oil that’s been poured over tea leaves and then brewed into a liquid that’s much more suited for bathing than it is for drinking.
The green tea is a sweet, delicately grassy taste. It’s soft and buttery and complements the lightly sweet, exquisite flavor of jasmine.
In other words, this is the good stuff, folks! I’m happy that Amoda Tea chose to include this in this month’s box – if for no other reason than to remind me what a good jasmine tea is supposed to taste like!
Thank you, Amoda!
Sun and Cloud Mist Tea from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas (better hurry on this one … at the time of this writing there were only 3 pouches left in stock!)
Tea Description:
Don’t let the silliness of this week’s label fool you. This is a serious tea: Seriously delicious. We’ve combined a premium Yun Wu (Cloud Mist) green tea with marshmallow root and all things lemon for a smooth, refreshing lemony green tea with some extra marshmallowy sweetness added in. Plus, you get a package with this cute kitten on the label!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Aww… just look at this label. Isn’t it cute? A lemony sun, marshmallow-y clouds, and an adorable kitten. How could anyone NOT buy this tea based on the label alone?
But if the label isn’t enough to draw you in – heck, maybe you’re a dog person – then the flavor of this tea should. It is one seriously tasty tea!
The base of the tea is a Yun Wu (aka Cloud Mist) which is a temporary departure from the usual Chinese Sencha tea that 52Teas usually uses in their green tea blends. While I do enjoy the Chinese Sencha that is the go-to green tea base for 52Teas, I must say that the use of the Yun Wu is very refreshing. It is a little lighter overall, and offers a slightly sweeter, nuttier flavor than the usual buttery Sencha tea, and I think that the Yun Wu melds very harmoniously with the lemon and marshmallow flavors of this blend.
And while I probably wouldn’t have thought of combining the flavors of lemon and marshmallow, I really like the way these two come together. The marshmallow flavor is a bit soft, but I find that it emerges more after allowing the tea to cool for a minute or two.
The lemon is strong, however, it is not overwhelming the other flavors of the tea. Instead, it saves much of its strength for the aftertaste, which ends up tasting a bit to me like Lemon Meringue Jelly Bellys (one of my favorite flavors), and it’s making me want to reach over for the jar that is just slightly out of my reach at the moment and start munching on Jelly Bellys!
But I won’t. I will instead enjoy this tea … and it is really so good. And as good as it is hot, it is even better iced! YUMmmm!
Clouds & Mist from Empire Tea Services
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Empire Tea Services
Product Description:
China green tea grown in the misty mountains. Well twisted long leaves, delicate flavor and makes a pale bright cup. One of the best!
Taster’s Review:
It is fun to watch this tea steep. The dry leaves are long and thin, curly and twisted. As the “agony of the tea leaves” commences, I watch these leaves toss and turn in the hot water, slowly opening to reveal tiny, delicate leaves, and producing a gorgeous clear green liquor.
The flavor of this Clouds & Mist green is sweet and vegetative. The vegetative taste is somewhat grassy, and yet I taste notes of vegetables as well. It has a wonderful savory taste to it with hints of spice tones in the background. I can also taste a hint of citrus-y flavor in the background.
This is not your typical “sweet and buttery” green tea, it doesn’t have that buttery, thick mouthfeel that you might experience with a Chinese Sencha. Instead, I consider this to be on the opposite side of the spectrum. The flavor is more savory, as I mentioned previously.
There are sweet tones to this tea, and they are contrasted well with the savory notes. The sweetness arrives at the start of the sip; a sour note that hits about mid-sip; while the bitterness reveals itself briefly just after the sour note washes over the palate..
This is a wonderfully complex green tea that I would recommend to all green tea enthusiasts.
Cloud & Mist Tea from Mark T. Wendell
Tea Type: Green Tea
Where To Buy: Mark T. Wendell
Product Description:
This tea is a unique find, deriving its name from the high altitude growing areas of the Wu Lu Mountains in the Jiangxi province of China. Grown in the gentle mountain clouds and prevalent mist, this tea consists of single bud and leaf sets that unfurl magnificently when brewed. The brewed liquor has a herbaceous aroma, a smooth and sweet taste and appears a modest yellow-green in the cup.
Tasters Review:
I assumed this would be grassier tasting based on the aroma but it has a wonderful Sweet-Buttery-Almond Type Taste to it- with a little grassiness is the middle of the sip – but then ends smoother. Smoother than I expected, too!
This is a good green tea! For those of you who think green teas are grassy or mossy tasting and leave funky-floral aftertastes…give green another try if that is what turns you off on greens! Cloud & Mist from Mark T. Wendell is different and very pleasing!
Plus…Cloud Mist Green Tea is one of China’s top ten teas. Perhaps you’ve seen it by another name from other companies?
They sometimes go by Yun Wu Green Tea, Cloud and Mist Tea, Cloud and Mist Green Tea, Cloud Mist, Yun Wu Lu Cha, Lu Shan Yun Wu Green Tea, Mount Lu Cloud and Mist. Regardless this is a nice, clean cuppa. Very unique and refreshingly-sweet.
