Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Life in Teacup
Tea Description:
Production Year – 2012
Production Season – Spring
Production Region: Jiangxi Province, Wuyuan
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tastes so crisp and light! It’s such a refreshing tea.
It’s very reminiscent of spring, the season in which it’s produced. It has that light, fresh taste that reminds me of new plant growth in the spring, the tiny leaf buds as they begin to open and turn everything green again after the cold of winter. So sweet and pure.
The vegetative notes fall somewhere between grassy and steamed baby spinach. The grassy tones are very mellow and slight, not quite tasting as grassy as some other green teas that I’ve tasted but, it’s something a bit more than just your average, everyday steamed spinach too. It is mild and smooth, with a moderate astringency toward the tail. It has a creamy delivery – smooth from the start and then toward the end the astringency leaves the palate feeling clean and refreshed.
Quite a lovely tea! I was sad to see that all that remains of this year’s harvest of this tea are a few samples … it’s a delicious tea, one that is definitely worth trying. Keep an eye out and watch Life in Teacup’s website for an announcement, as they are planning on taking pre-orders for this tea just before next year’s harvest! This tea is definitely worth the effort.
Wild Watermelon from Kally Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Kally Tea
Tea Description:
You’ll love this combination of sweet watermelon, paired with smoky gunpowder green tea, with the addition of tangy lime, and natural flavors. The result is a sophisticated and refreshing cup that will surprise and delight your senses. We have found that this tea is truly enhanced with the addition of a sweetener of your choice. Try it without first if you desire, but do not deprive yourself of the experience with the addition of a sweetener.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
At first glance, this tea might cause some confusion even to the most experienced tea drinker. With so many chunks of fruit and herbs, this looks more like a fruit or herbal tisane than a tea. But, look closely, and you’ll see the gunpowder green tea.
So, I steeped this as I would most green teas – a low temperature for a time somewhere between 1 1/2 minutes and 2 1/2 minutes. I opted to lower the temperature to just 170°F so that I could tack an extra 30 seconds brew time and brewed it for 2 1/2 minutes. My hope was that I would be able to extract as much fruit flavor as I can in such a short amount of time, while still managing to keep the green tea from becoming bitter.
Success! This is very flavorful. The liquor is a pretty pale pink hue from the hibiscus, but fortunately, the hibiscus didn’t affect the texture by turning it syrupy nor did it make this cup too tart. There is some tartness to this – make no mistake – but the sour notes I taste are from the lime and pomegranate, not the hibiscus. I can barely taste the hibiscus here, and I’m certainly not complaining!
I can taste the green tea too. It offers a slightly smoky note in the distance, and I find that this smoky tone is especially noticeable in the aftertaste. Quite nice. The green tea does get a little overwhelmed by everything else that’s going on in this blend, but, it’s not completely masked by the other flavors.
And I love that I can taste the watermelon here … it is sweet, and juicy – just like the delicious fruit in the very center of the melon. I love how the tart lime brings out the sweet notes of the watermelon to offer a really delicious cuppa. This is good hot, but even better iced with a little bit of sugar, which helps to bring out the flavors even more.
These leaves can be resteeped a second time. I found that the flavor mellows a little bit with the second infusion, but they weren’t really less flavorful, the cup just tasted different than the first time. This time, I taste more of the gunpowder tea, but, not so much of a smoky note from it. Instead, I taste more of a light, fresh vegetative taste.
The watermelon is a lighter flavor this time around, tasting a bit more like the fruit that is closer to the rind rather than in the center of the melon. The lime is milder this time, and I really am enjoying how the flavors come together in this second infusion – I think I prefer it to the first!
Very nicely done.
Wild Purple Buds Puerh from Butiki Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh (Purple)
Where to Buy: Butiki Teas
Tea Description:
Our Wild Purple Buds Puerh originates from Yunnan, China on the border of China and Burma. This tea was harvested from wild ancient trees at an altitude of 6,000 feet by the Wa tribal people in 2011. Our puerh falls in the Sheng (raw) category of puerh and is in loose leaf-form. The buds of this tea are purple, green, and yellow. Purple buds indicate a higher level of anthocyanin (a flavoniod). This flavonoid usually causes bitterness but does not in this case as this is a smooth puerh. Our puerh has light smoked oak notes with honey and floral notes and has a juicy mouthfeel. This rare tea is of limited supply.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I guess I should have read the steeping parameters for this one before I brewed it! haha! The recommended steep time is just 3 seconds! I steeped it for 45 seconds in my gaiwan after rinsing. After that time, the infusion as so light in color, it looked like a white tea! It certainly did not look like Pu-erh. I was worried I did something wrong, or maybe that 45 seconds was not long enough … and then I learn that I should have only steeped for 3 seconds.
After 45 seconds, the flavor is intense. It is rich, earthy, and a little sharp from the smoky tones, but not at all bitter. It has a lovely honey-esque undertone to it as well as a mineral-y overtone. It has a lighter body than a typical Pu-erh, it doesn’t feel real “heavy” the way that Pu-erh can often feel, but at the same time, there is a whole lot of flavor to it.
For the second infusion, I decided to steep it a little less time … not 3 seconds, since I figured after steeping it for 45 seconds, 3 seconds would be weak. So I steeped it for 30 seconds this time, and the flavor is very much like the first cup, but I notice that the mineral notes are softer, and the honey notes are tapering to a more floral sweetness. It’s still earthy and oaken, and has a pleasant crispness to it. It is quite enjoyable.
I found the third, fourth and fifth infusions to be very similar to the first and second, but by the sixth infusion, the flavor was becoming even smoother. The flavor is still rich and was by no means becoming weaker, but by this sixth infusion the flavors seemed to have melded together seamlessly. The smoky note here is fantastic. So deliciously savory, and a delightful contrast to the sweet tones of this cup. I notice less of the mineral notes now, and an almost bean-like vegetal note has emerged that marries with the smoky notes so delectably.
This tea is still going strong! As the day was coming to a close, I decided to put the leaves aside for the next day. Well, the next day is here now, and I’ve been steeping this tea! This is now my eighth infusion. The seventh infusion was delightful, reminding me of the flavors that I enjoyed last night: slightly mineral, sweet, floral, honey, vegetal, earth, and oak. This infusion is similar. Each infusion becomes smoother, and … I don’t want to say that the flavor gets “softer” as in weaker… but softer as in silkier, smoother, and easier to sip.
I am astonished at the endurance of this tea. It just keeps on going. I still have not brought the steep time to over 1 minute, and I am now on my ninth infusion. The flavors are still there, and still very enjoyable. I have a feeling that this tea is going to go on for a while still, but, I think that by now, you – the reader – gets the point, which is to TRY THIS TEA!
Seriously: try this tea. If you love Puerh, you must try it… even if you don’t really care for Puerh, give this one a try, if for no other reason than to expand your horizons a bit. You might find that this Puerh is to your liking… as it is quite unlike any Puerh I’ve ever tried.
White Sage and Wild Mint Tea from Juniper Ridge
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Juniper Ridge
Tisane Description:
White Sage has a rich, earthy, minty flavor that made it a favorite tea for many of the Native American tribes and early settlers of the Southwest. I like to sip this tea during the wet winters here in Northern California and let my mind drift off to the hot desert country where White Sage grows. So many backpacking trips over the years in that beautiful, sunbaked country—maybe I’ll just sit here in the shade of this Palo Verde tree and let some of the afternoon heat pass while I nod off to sleep with the smell of Wild Sage in the air . . . Now you can enjoy this classic Southwestern tea and dream your own daydreams of the big rock, White Sage desert country.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
This tisane has a very rustic feel to it … from the packaging (the labels are printed on recycled kraft paper, which give them a rugged style) to the aroma (earthy sage and mint) to the flavor.
This tisane boasts a fairly simple combination of sage and mint. But, I don’t think I’ve ever tried a sage and mint tea until I tried this one from Juniper Ridge. I know I’ve had teas with sage in them, and definitely teas with mint it them, but I don’t recall trying a blend of just sage and mint. Simple, yes, but also simply delicious!
Not surprisingly, it is a very minty tisane. The wild mint gives it a cool, crisp flavor, and it is definitely the strongest flavor of the cup. But the sage comes in beneath the mint and provides a nice earthy tone with a warm, peppery tone that arrives toward the end of the sip. It is a very enjoyable contrast of warm and cool flavors.
I find this to be very soothing to sip as I start to wind down for the evening, and yet it has an invigorating flavor to it that would be a nice, caffeine free pick-me-up in the afternoon if that’s what you’re after.
Wild Arbor Buds (White Pu-erh Leaf Buds) from Mandala Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Mandala Tea
Tea Description:
Although this amazing tea is pu’er leaf buds, it is best described and prepared as a white tea since it is picked in the late winter/early spring of 2011 and only sundried. No other processing takes place.
The liquor is clear and the flavor is sweet and floral with hints of pine. Complex flavors and yet so simple to enjoy. Mild and pleasant. This tea is rare and beautiful, as fresh as spring!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is one of the more unusual looking teas that I’ve come across in my tea adventures. These buds remind me of the tops of the grassy weeds that I used to run through when I was a kid … you know the ones that would deposit burrs in socks and then keep poking you as it got further and further embedded into the fabric of the sock, becoming more and more uncomfortable? Well, the uncomfortable feeling never stopped me from running through those grassy fields when I was a kid, and this tea’s unusual appearance isn’t going to stop me from trying this tea!
It brews up to a very pale color … it almost looks like water that is in my cup, it is so pale. But for such a light color, there is a lot of flavor to this. I hadn’t read the description above until after I had taken my first couple of sips, and my initial reaction was that this tastes very much like a pu-erh. It has that pu-erh earthiness to it, although it is more like a “white tea” pu-erh earthiness (which is quite appropriate for this IS a white pu-erh) than the darker pu-erh teas that I’m used to.
It also has some characteristics that I’d expect from a white tea, although it is not as delicate as most white teas I’ve tasted. But this does have that hay-like quality to it that I often taste in a high quality Bai Mu Dan.
The sip starts sweet, with an almost immediate transition to the earthiness of the cup, and hints of hay, as well as woody tones and floral notes weave their way throughout the sip. Towards the end of the sip, I notice a mineral-y kind of taste toward the end of the sip that settles on the palate. The finish is slightly earthy with hints of fresh pine.
It’s quite a nice cup, and a different way to experience pu-erh.