Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teasenz
Tea Description:
The most flavorful and fragrant of all Chinese green teas. Xin Yang Mao Jian’s small, roundish leaves with fine, white hairs develop into an intense green color when brewed, producing a refreshing liquor that transports you to a relaxing, calming world after a long day. Robust flavor, lingering fragrance and an invigorating taste.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I think I fell in love with this Xin Yang Mao Jian Green Tea from Teasenz at first sight. The leaves are gorgeous! Long, slender, elegant looking leaves that are beautifully deep, forest-y green with tiny white fuzz. I could tell by looking at these leaves that I was in for a top notch Chinese green tea.
Of course, I’ve come to expect nothing less from Teasenz. They seem to always deliver some of the very best teas I’ve tasted!
And this is a remarkable Mao Jian!
The dry leaf aroma is somewhere between steamed spinach and kelp, leaning more toward the steamed spinach. The brewed tea also has a strong vegetal note, but, I find that the flavor is less vegetative than the fragrance would suggest.
Oh, sure, it still has a vegetative taste to it, but it’s not as strong as I expected it to be. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I expected more of a “spinach-y” or a “grassy” or even a “kelpy” sort of flavor but this is more like a sweet vegetable, like maybe a steamed artichoke heart.
This is sweet! It has a strong sweetness to it that seems to develop on the palate, starting off rather light, and then by the time I reached mid-cup, the flavor is intense and it lingers long into the aftertaste. Just after the sweetness washes over the palate, I start to notice the nutty flavors develop. It finishes with a delicate astringency. The aftertaste remains sweet long after the sip.
A really lovely Mao Jian. This one gets high marks!
Magical Mao Jian Green Tea from Teasenz
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teasenz
Tea Description:
Small and curly leaves that are reminiscent of our bi luo chun but with a stronger, more vibrant taste. If you are looking for a highly refreshing green tea that leaves a fresh, clean taste in your mouth, then magical mao jian is just what you need.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Mao Jian has been, for a long time now, one of my very favorite Chinese green teas. And this Magical Mao Jian Green Tea from Teasenz is delightful! I’m not sure why they chose to call this Mao Jian “Magical” but, it’s tasting magical to me!
Sweet and vegetative with a moderate astringency that leaves the palate feeling tingly clean after each sip, this Mao Jian is pleasantly invigorating and yet mellow and soothing to drink.
The flavor is sweet and light. There are hints of a toasty nutty flavor in the background. The foreground has a crispness to it, and the vegetative taste is somewhere between sweet/grassy and savory/vegetables with maybe just a touch of butter to accentuate the flavor of the veggies. But even with that light touch of butter, the astringency of this tea seems to wipe the palate clean, readying it for another sip. The buttery notes never become heavy or inundating.
I find that as I sip on this tea, my worries seem to melt away and I just sort of lose myself in the cup! That’s what I like best about Mao Jian … and this one is top-notch!
Silky Silver Needle from Teasenz
Tea Type:
White Tea
Where To Buy:
Teasenz
Product Description:
Enjoyed exclusively by the imperial family in China for centuries, the Silky Silver Needle is a top-grade white tea with a soft, smooth, and silky-sweet taste experience. An ethereal cup with a lingering fragrance and refreshing aftertaste. Pure and refreshing.How is Pekoe Silver Needle produced?
The tea leaves for making Pekoe Silver Needle are gathered only for a few days in early spring. Teas cannot be picked on rainy days or early morning when there is still dew on the leaves; leaves which have experienced any kind of damage are discarded. Only the finest, healthiest tea buds are picked. White teas differed from green teas in that their processing did not incorporate any steaming or pan-firing. The teas were simply allowed to wither dry, thus the tea leaves are preserved most close to their natural state.
How to steep Pekoe Silver Needle?
To fully appreciate the exquisite shapes of this tea, using a clear glass is strongly suggested. Warm the glass first with boiling water and then pour 200 ml of water (80 degree) over around 3 grams of tea. The tea leaves will start to float on top of the glass. After 5 minutes, some leaves will sink down to the bottom of the glass while others remain at the top. All tea leaves will then stand up vertically performing a magical dance – An enchanting sight to enjoy before drinking the tea.
Which region is Pekoe Silver Needle from?
Our Pekoe Silver Needle is from Fuding. Different from the Zhenghe Silver Needle, the Fuding Silver Needle is famous for the tea’s thick layer of white coat, resulting in a clean, fragrant, and refreshing taste experience.
I have to say LEARNING about Silky Silver Needle from Teasenz was just as fun as tasting it! This is incredibly clean, thirst quenching, sweet, juicy, pure, and delicious! I enjoy this both hot and cold. It’s hard to over infuse which is always a plus. It doesn’t turn to bitter even if over infused. I can envision myself even using this in cooking – in soups or rice or even with noodles. This is a very good Silver Needle!
White Chrysanthemum Tea from Teasenz
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Flower
Where to Buy: Teasenz
Tisane Description:
Soothing, calming and refreshing. You may have sampled chrysanthemum tea in Chinese restaurants. Now, Teasenz brings you the highest grade of chrysanthemum tea available in China. Our white chrysanthemum tea is a truly lovely flower tea that just can’t be resisted.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
The picture above shows you exactly what I saw when I opened the package of this White Chrysanthemum Tea from Teasenz. Lots of big, dry white chrysanthemum blossoms! They’re whole blossoms, not dust or particles, and they range in size from about the size of a dime to the size of a quarter in diameter.
The aroma isn’t as pleasant to my nose as say, a jasmine or a rose tea. Then again, I’d much rather smell a bouquet of fresh roses or jasmine flowers to a bouquet of chrysanthemums. I just happen to prefer the fragrance of roses and/or jasmine blossoms.
But the tea produced from steeping these chrysanthemums is absolutely lovely! It’s a pale yellow-ish color liquid, and the flavor is quite pleasant. It has a sweet taste, almost honey-esque in flavor. It’s quite soothing to sip. The flavor is (obviously!) floral, but it’s kind of an herbaceous flowery taste. If I were to compare it to more “popular’ flower teas, I would say that this tastes more like a chamomile tea than a rose tea.
That said, I’d much prefer to sip a chrysanthemum tea over a chamomile, as I do find the flavor of the chrysanthemum more to my liking. The herbaceous tones remind me vaguely of straw. Like dried straw. And there is a slight earthiness that goes along with the straw-like flavor.
Overall, I found this to be a very refreshing, tasty cup of tea. A really pleasant change of pace!
Ginseng Vitality Oolong Tea from Teasenz
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Teasenz
Tea Description:
Invigorating and deliciously sweet. This oolong tea has a taste resembling tie guan yin, but with the sweet and refreshing aroma of ginseng. Our Ginseng Vitality Oolong is produced using superior oolong tea mixed with ginseng roots, resulting in a healthy drink that nourishes the body and enriches the soul. A perfect cup to start the day.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The dry leaf of this Ginseng Vitality Oolong Tea from Teasenz has a strong vegetal/herbaceous kind of scent. I can definitely smell the ginseng!
Now, as some of you might know from past reviews, ginseng is not one of my favorite things, but, I do try to give it a fair shake when I encounter ginseng in a tea and honestly, of the teas that I’ve tried with ginseng in them … I’ve enjoyed more than I’ve disliked. So, I’m optimistic about this one from Teasenz, especially since I’ve not been disappointed with any teas that I’ve tried from them thus far.
And I can chalk this Ginseng Vitality Oolong Tea from Teasenz up with one of those ginseng teas that I enjoy, because this is actually really quite nice. I am picking up on some toasty notes, some sweet nutty tones, and a light vegetative note. There are some earthy notes, too. It has an enjoyable, honey-esque undertone.
My first cup (infusions 1 & 2) was a bit lighter than the subsequent cups, but even though it was a little lighter in flavor, it was still very flavorful! The second cup (infusions 3 & 4) was a little more vegetative than the first, and it was in this cup that the toasty notes really came through very nicely. I am surprised that I don’t taste a lot of ginseng flavor here at all, because I expected more of an earthy flavor from it, but I’m not getting that! (And this makes me smile!)
My third cup (infusions 5 & 6) was a little softer in flavor than the second cup, and the flavors were not quite as focused as they were with the second cup. I found the flavors starting to become more of a seamless note. I also started to notice more of a herbaceous, earthy tone with this third cup than in the first two.
Overall, a pretty enjoyable cuppa. Ginseng will never become a favorite thing of mine, but, I like it when I can find ways to enjoy it like I have with this tea.