Darjeeling is a black tea, not a green tea. Sorry as a tea nerd I had to put that out there first or I couldn’t continue with the review. Though personally I think Darjeeling is unique enough that it should get it’s own tea type or be placed with oolong.
But that’s for another day, let’s discuss this tea.
It’s full on blueberry in your face paroxysm. Which is quickly tempered down with the muscatel Darjeeling. All of the other flavors blend very nicely. Nothing tries to overwhelm and upset the balance.
The aroma is dominated by blueberry but it’s delightful. This is great warm but also good cold.
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Leaf Type: Black/Green Tea
Where to Buy: Wise Ape Tea Co.
Description
A refreshing blend of pure darjeeling green tea, moringa leaf, and two-parts bilberry traverse the time-space continuum, delivering an antioxidant infusion to your cellular defenses. Delicate notes of high-altitude green tea merge with brilliant blueberry to teleport your taste buds into another dimension. Designed to defend, refresh, and renew.
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Black Beauty/Mandala Tea -Skysamurai-
NOOOOO!! I thought this was a Lapsang.
It smelled to heavily of campfire smoke I didn’t think it could be anything but Lapsang….
But no… It’s a wonderful black tea And why am I screaming?
Because I dumped a good lot of it in my bone broth that is cooking from yesterdays turkey leftovers. Shame, shame, shame. It really s too bad. This tea is so smooth.
A Keenum style but without the astringency. Aroma of apricots and slightly earthy in the wet leaf. I’m currently on my third steeping and it’s still going strong. I hope my bone broth is amazing.
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Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Mandala Tea
Description
Black Beauty is a very fitting name for this wonderful tea! If you are a fan of Keemun style black teas, you will want to try this one. Most of our customers and myself, now prefer this over the Keemun black. It is wonderfully sweet, almost chocolatey and little to no astringency present! The tea liquor is clear and longer steepings will give it a slightly red hue.
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Vietnam Red Oolong – Kim Tuyen/Simpson & Vail- Skysamurai-
Another advent tea gift. I find it interesting that while this one is a rolled style the others I have come upon are shaped into balls.
So it makes me wonder why the farmer decided to make that change. It is a gorgeous leaf. Dark chocolate in color with light brown flecks here and there. The flavor is mineral, musty, and filled with wet wood notes. There is honey in the after taste. It isn’t strong but the way it lingers is very unique.
My aroma cup doesn’t reveal much for the liquid but the wet leaf is earthy and kinda mineral. I say kinda because it hides. Sometimes you sense it and sometimes you don’t. Some oolongs can last for many steepings but this one seems to have had its limelight in the first and second steepings.
Though as I’m coming upon my 7th? infusion now I’m find some of the sweeter notes are really shining. The instructions also say to brew four minutes, which I assume would be western style. I’ve tried both western and gong fu but so far I prefer the gong fu. It offers the ability to test it out more at more stages, not that you can’t in western but it just doesn’t steep the same.
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Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Simpson & Vail
Description
This exquisite oolong comes to us from Northern Vietnam, where some of the old tea plants are still partially grown wild. Local villagers traditionally process these leaves and the resulting tea is unique and delicious.
The large leaves resemble a black tea, however, the brewed cup is distinctively oolong in character. The aroma is bright with slight spice and floral notes. The amber cup imparts a toasty aftertaste with a slight honey sweet flavor.
Brew tea at 212º – steep for 4 minutes.
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Day #1 Adagio Teas Advent Calendar -CuppaGeek-
Today is the second official day of the tea advent calendar season but to avoid spoilers- I’m going to review the lovely Adagio Teas Advent Calendar a day behind so without further ado. . . . .
Day #1- Spiced Apple Chai
Spiced Apple Chai is a tea blend from Adagio Teas that I know very well. I have enjoyed this one quite often. This lovely black tea based flavored chai is pretty much like fall in a cup but I like to enjoy this one with a twist. A shot of rum or a dollop of cream just adds a nice next level feel to this brew.
Brewed with fresh prepped water at boiling and steeped for right around 2-3 minutes this blends yields a distinctive distinctive apple flavor along with what I would consider the traditional chai spices-ginger, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon . Flavors that you would expect to go well together and a chai you want to enjoy on a cool day where wrapping your hands around a mug brings your tea loving soul so much love.
Adding the additional extras of course are optional to enjoy this lovely cuppa and what is great about this particular blend, there are so many different ways you can enjoy- western brewed, as a latte, adult like with a shot of this or that, cold brewed with or without a touch of maple syrup, truly the possibilities are endless which makes this one of my favorite Adagio blends.
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Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description
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Gojiberry Infusion/Tea Barr Company -Ashmanra-
A box of samples from the Sisters is a lot like Christmas! It is so exciting to paw through the teas and see new blends to try and companies you have never heard of. What a surprise to look up this company and find that they are fairly close to me, just a couple of hours away.
We are having a little cold spell so I tried this hot first while sitting by a warm fire. The sencha base is not too grassy, and while you definitely taste the green tea the overall impression from this tea is a light and lovely fruitiness. I don’t know that I have ever had gojiberry by itself, but what this reminds me most of are pomegranate blends I have tried. There ARE pomegranate seeds in this, so I may be tasting those plus some natural flavoring or it could be that gojiberry tastes a lot like pomegranate.
This is SO light and fruity that I could almost feel a spring breeze caressing my face and I knew I needed to make a pitcher of iced tea with it as well. Here in the South we drink iced sweet tea all year. The golden tea is so pretty as is, but in summer I would serve this with a few frozen berries swirling in each glass. This would be a wonderful picnic tea, or refreshment for an afternoon tea party!
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Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Tea Barr Company
Description
This is a fine, pure combination of fresh Sencha tea, masterfully infused with juicy goji berries, and decorated with bright cornflowers. This tasty combination creates a unique and healthy treat.
Ingredients: green tea, goji berries, lemongrass, pomegranate seeds, cornflower blossoms, and natural flavoring.
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