Terroir Tea’s claim to fame is telling you about the terroir (origin of the tea, including environment, location, soil, climate, etc). Which is totally one of those things I love to know. Where did this come from? Who grew it? Can I go meet them?
This particular tea comes from a place that allegedly smells like tea all the time because said tea is drying outside.
I dare you to find a better location, except for maybe Disney World or something.
What I like about this tea (aside from knowing about the enchanted town from whence it came) is how very light and buttery it is. The color hardly changes at all during steeping, so you have to TRUST that it’s steeped after a few minutes. It’s very airy and floral and sweet. It’s like a Precious Moments figurine of an angel.
I joke about Precious Moments figurines a LOT, but it’s mostly because I intend to become the kind of old lady who collects the heck out of them. I love their… little… faces.
I know I wear all black every day, and own more than one Marilyn Manson album, but I can’t resist sweet things. I love dessert tea and sweet light oolongs. I love puppies. I love figurines.
And I love the idea of a town in Taiwan that smells nice all the time. How WONDERFUL is that?
That’s how Terroir Tea brings you in. They sell not only the tea (which is delicious!) but the story behind the tea. It’s the whole package!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Terroir Tea Merchant
Description
An aromatic strip-style green oolong that’s purely delicious and refreshing. The lightest oxidised of all oolongs, Bao Chung has the best characteristics of green tea together with unique oolong qualities to create a complex and enjoyable tea experience.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Honey Red Jade from Golden Leaf Tea. . . . .
I’m a sucker for bug-bitten oolongs and their characteristic honey flavor. Although I usually avoid black teas for health reasons, I couldn’t resist a straight black tea with honey in the name. I did not know anything about it at the time I drank it and took notes, but I have since looked it up and am not surprised to learn that this is a Taiwanese black tea produced from tea leaves that have been nibbled on by leafhoppers. It tastes exactly like you would expect that description to taste, in the best way.
The sample I received came in a pyramid sachet. This is also available in loose leaf. I brewed three steeps in the sachet, but if I were to do it over again I would cut open the sachet and put the loose leaf in a steeper. I opened up the sachet when I was done and the reddish-brown leaf was still not fully unfurled even though it had filled up all of the space available. It’s just really good leaf, and it deserves room to breathe.
The dry leaf smells like honey, malt, and sugar. It steeps up a nice amber color. The flavor is malt and honey. Simple but beautifully executed. It’s seductively smooth for two solid steeps. A third steep is possible but comes out watery; I had to top it off with some actual honey. If you’re looking for a black tea that’s a little different than the usual, this one’s worth a try.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Golden Leaf
Description
Third Place Award Winner at the North American Tea Championship 2015. Honey Red Jade Tea is a unique fermented black tea from the pristine hills of Taiwan. Hand-picked and processed, Honey Red Jade Tea is grown naturally to encourage the tea leafhoppers to feed on the tea leaves, producing a natural honey fragrance when the enzymes from the leafhoppers interact with the tea plants. This tea brews to a dark caramel color with a sweet fragrance and refreshing taste.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Nonpareil Anxi Qing Yiang Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea by Teavivre . . . . .
I steeped about half the sample packet (or a little over half) in about 10 ounces of water at 212 degrees for about 6 minutes.
It smells indisputably delicious as it starts to brew. Buttery, creamy, smooth, and rich. Also a tiny bit seaweedy/vegetal/grassy, but that’s subsumed by the butteriness.
The packet says to brew 4-10 minutes, which means it’s probably great for resteeping since you only need to steep it about 5-6 minutes in my experience (and with a little less water it would be less). So if you’re in the mood to re-steep, this might be a good choice for you. (As opposed to when you’re on the road or something and resteeping isn’t convenient.)
I started out using a tea ball to contain the leaves, but after a couple of minutes it became clear that wasn’t going to work out because they were just expanding too much so I let them out. Next time I’d just put them directly in the water or use a brew basket. That way I’d be able to watch them unroll too, which is always fun.
After steeping, I ended up with a nice light yellowish-green liquid (hard to say the exact shade though because I was using a green mug). It smells the tiniest bit flowery in addition to the buttery flavor.
The combo of green and creamy flavors reminds me a bit of matcha actually, although it’s gentler here and less vegetal in flavor. This is a very well-rounded flavor profile, with the bright, floral, and creamy notes complementing each other in a balanced and enjoyable fashion. Each sip is amazing. The floral bit catches your nose as you go to take a sip; the creaminess is there the whole time, and you taste the green/vegetal bit during the sip, and afterwards there’s even a slightly sweet aftertaste. And I don’t even prefer unroasted oolongs as a rule, so I’m extremely impressed with this tea and how much I enjoyed it! Teavivre has done an amazing job with this one as usual!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Description
This tea is no longer available but click below for teas that are available.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Monkey Picked Iron Goddess (Fujian Monkey Picked Ti Kwan Yin) from Tea N Joy. . .
Ah, oolongs – my favorite type of tea. There’s no bad time of year for a good ti kwan yin.
Summer? Cold brew. Winter? Western-style brew in a giant mug. Any time? Gong fu.
The dry leaf of this particular ti kwan yin is forest green with brown stems. It is semiball-rolled. I could not find brewing guidelines on the company’s website so I improvised from experience. I got five decent steeps out of this leaf, all delivering a pale gold brew. I prepared the first steep at 205f for 40 seconds. The wet leaf looks and smells good. The leaves have substantially unfurled. They are medium sized, torn at the edges and sometimes in the middle, and attached to the stems. They give off a scent of light roast and honey. The flavor of this first steep is initially a light honey sweetness, followed by a soft nutty note.
Subsequent steeps bring out some bitterness in the leaf. At 205f for 60 seconds, the second steep may have been too long, too hot, or both. I have trouble identifying the flavor but the closest I can describe it is a stone fruit such as apricot. For the third steep, I keep it at 205f for 60 seconds rather than increasing the steep time. The flavor is a kale-like bitterness with a hint of sweetness.
As it cools, the bitterness fades (though never fully disappears) and a honeydew note comes to the fore. The fourth steep – 200f, 60 seconds – is less bitter and generally lighter, but overall similar to steep three with a slightly bitter honeydew flavor. The fifth steep – 200f, 2 minutes – isn’t bitter but is losing flavor. It still has a light and sweet melon note but this is the last steep.
For thoroughness, I decided to also make this Western-style. I used plenty of leaf and tried a lower temperature to see if that would reduce the bitterness. I brewed it at 185f for 4 minutes. That eliminated the bitterness but it also resulted in a less flavorful brew. There was a nutty note and a honeydew note, but they were weak and watery compared to the flavor of the gong fu preparation and other oolongs I’ve prepared Western-style. I would stick to preparing this tea gong fu style.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Tea N Joy
Description
This wonderful oolong tea comes from the Wuyi Mountains of Fujian Province. Gongfu style preparation is recommended for this high grade Ti Kwan Yin. The tea’s name came from a legend that told of monkeys being used by monks to retrieve this tea from the high mountains. In general, monkey picked tea are from wild tea plants that grow in inaccessible places, such as on high cliff faces. When brewed, this golden liquor gives a floral flavor with a hint of chestnut and a delightful aftertaste.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Mt. Wudong Mi Lan Xiang Dancong Oolong Tea aka Honey Orchid from JK Tea. . . .
Honey Orchid, what an alluring name for a tea. That just makes you feel like this tea is going to deliver on sweet floral notes. What that name doesn’t say is this tea is also robust, rich, and full of a slight earthy flavor that mingles perfectly with the honey and floral tones.
This particular oolong from JK Tea, a tea shop dedicated to offering high quality teas to the tea community, doesn’t have any notable aromas when you first open the tea. But after brewing this tea with fresh water prepped right under boiling and allowing the tea to brew for a few minutes, this tea gives you all the loving you can handle.
Gorgeous rich but subtle earthy notes lay the ground work for these pops of sweet floral touches that you can pick up through each sip. There is also this underlying fruit note that adds to the sweetness. I greedily gulped, yes gulped, this tea down. With all the wonderful flavors being so well balanced, I couldn’t help myself.
Don’t judge this tea by how simple the flavors sound. This is one of those teas that you need to literally sit down and thoroughly enjoy without distraction to really focus on what the tea leaves are yielding. Highly recommend this tea for those that are looking for a break in what they normally drink or just to change the pace up a bit. Simply beautiful!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: JK Tea
Description
When we come to the shape of the Mi Lan Xiang Dancong Tea, if you look for some photos, you can see resemblance with dried seaweed, both in color and it’s twisted, stick-like shape, but the texture of the Tea is a bit firmer and maybe we can even make a comparison with vanilla sticks, if you can imagine them ultrathin and strained. For the taste, it enjoys strong, delicate honey aroma with light floral aroma as well; sweet taste with lingering after taste sweetness; rich & complex mouth feeling after sipping the tea liquid. For some people, it is hard to believe that such strong fruity flavor is developed naturally and with such sophisticated process, but this is true.
